The Past Defines The Future
by NFS LOVER
Summary: Hiccup had no choice. He was a traitor to his people, to his friends...to his father. He had to leave. But someone's past always defines their future. No matter how long you try to run, even if it may be years...your past always catches up with you. What will Hiccup do when he is forced to go back? Hiccstrid in this story. Some chapters may be T/M.
1. Hateful Place

**A/N: Hey guys, this is another story for HTTYD and I hope it will be a success, so enjoy!**

_Hiccup's POV_

"Dad don't!" I yelled as Toothless was being locked up like a beast. "You befriended a dragon Hiccup! What were you thinking!?" he yelled at me. This was in the Arena. Everyone was watching, most of them with hate in their eyes towards me, yelling _Traitor!_ and other names that I won't dare mention. My so called friends, even if you call them that were also watching, not believing what I did, and shunning me for it. Then I saw her, Astrid, she refused to make eye contact with me. I lowered my head in defeat. _"If only I went after her"_ I thought. You see she found that I was keeping Toothless and she ran to tell the village. I thought they wouldn't believe her...but I was mistaken.

They soon came with swords, bolas, axes, and fire ready to kill Toothless but my dad wanted him alive to have a public execution of one of the most dangerous dragons alive. "I told you I shot one down but you didn't believe me. None of you!" I yelled because I was extremely angry right now. All the anger from constant shunning, teasing and bullying was coming out. "Then why didn't you kill it son, brought me the head and show that you're a Viking!?" Stoick asked. He was just as angry at me than everyone else.

I looked down, I looked to Astrid who was staring at me this time, but with anger and was also waiting for the truth. "Because when I found him...he was as weak as I was...I looked into his eyes...and I saw myself" I answered. Everyone shaking their heads and more angry comments, all for me taking pity on our mortal enemy. "You betrayed us son...You betrayed our laws, our village...you betrayed me!" my dad yelled. I looked at him, I could see the hurt in his eyes and I looked around once more. I never truly felt like an Outcast...until now.

"Is it my fault that you can't change...Is it my fault that I trained him...Is it my fault that you are all pathetic?!" I screamed, tears brimming my eyes now. Everyone gasped when I made that comment and again started with their pointless threats. "You are no son of mine..." he said and turned away not giving me a second thought. "Mom would have understood" I said simply. I knew she would have understood because she was the only one who understood me when everyone else...not even my own father...didn't.

"Who would like the honour of cutting out this creature's heart!?" he yelled to which everyone cheered. "See Hiccup, this is what Vikings are, it's who we are! And that'll never change!" he said without looking at me. Even my 'friends' were fighting to get to Stoick...except Astrid. She just stood there with an emotionless face. "I'll do it!" I heard an all too familiar voice. I looked to see my best friend, Ripper, come next to me. "I'll kill him, to set an example to Hiccup of what he should have done that day" he said looking at me coldly.

Turned out Ripper had followed me that day and saw me release the Toothless, and he was there when I discovered all the tricks about a dragon. He helped me keep him a secret...and now he was going to kill Toothless. I couldn't look him in the eyes. "Alright Ripper, go ahead" my dad said handing him the sword and he walked right up to Toothless. I looked away, I couldn't bare see my best friend slaughter the only other friend I had. I was waiting Toothless to roar in pain, but I never heard it...all I heard were gasps...I looked up and I couldn't believe it.

Ripper had broke the locks that restrained Toothless with the sword and cut his ropes. As soon as he realized he was free, Toothless made a B-line for me and grabbed me and ran out of the Arena, over the villagers who were blocking the way. I quickly climbed up onto Toothless' back and looked down to see Ripper saying to get away. I couldn't leave him...they'd give him the death sentence for sure, and it was evident when Tuffnut and Snotlout came up and clamped his hands behind his back.

"Don't worry about me! Now get out of here!" he yelled and I had to do as they started firing arrows at me. I flew out towards the ocean, not knowing where to start my new life but one thing was for sure...I'm never coming back to this hateful place.


	2. The Truth Comes Out

**A/N: Hey guys, this is another story for HTTYD and I hope it will be a success, so enjoy!**

_Normal POV_

It had been just two days when Hiccup betrayed his whole clan. Befriended a dragon, lied to the village, lied to his friends...to his father. His name was never mentioned, and if it was...always with hate, disgust, shame. Hiccup the Useless went to being Hiccup the Traitor. No Viking wanted anything to with his past anymore.

Stoick carried that shame, and everyone felt sorry for him. Sorry that he had a son like Hiccup and not a _real_ Viking. His mood changed that day. He became angry, shameful and...sad at the same time, that he let his son turn against him, and their own past of killing dragons. But today there was going to be some entertainment for the villagers of Berk...because today there was going to be an execution for a Viking who committed treason

_Berk's Cell Blocks_

Ripper could hear all the preparations going on for his execution outside, as well as all the gossip of either being beheaded, pulled apart, impaled, etc. It would normally send chills down any person...but Ripper could give two dragon shit's about it. He simply sat down, with his back leaning against the wall and stared at the wall across his cell. He knew Hiccup had escaped and was going to start a new life some where else. He was thinking that he did live a good life, even though he was the same age as Hiccup, only fifteen, but he was better treated than Hiccup...much better. And it sickened him.

The chief's son was known for only his blunders, mistakes, uselessness and trouble...nothing good...and people wished he was gone. Well they got their wish, and he was sure _all_ of them were happy about it.

"Well, if it isn't the other stupid excuse for a troll" he heard Snotlout say. He looked to his left and on the other side of the cell bars were Astrid, Snotlout, the Twins and Fishlegs. Ripper just let out a laugh. "How long did it take you to come with that Snot? Must've been thinking about it all night aye?" he mocked. The teens saw this make a dent in Snotlout's ego.

"You shouldn't be talking like that to the future heir of this tribe" he said sticking out his chest. "Oh please...I give this village 2 days before it burns down when you become chief" he said, this time turning his attention back to the wall, denting Snotlout's ego even further. "Snot, just give it up" Astrid said seeing that Ripper could keep this up all day. "Ooh, it speaks" Ripper said, making fun of Astrid now...and she didn't like it one bit. "You're going to _die_ in less than an hour...and you're making fun of us?" she spat at him.

"I'm going die...yes...and your point?" Ripper plainly asked. The others just stared at him in disbelief. "Oh and by the way...I've been making fun of you for only ten minutes...compared to what you all did to Hiccup for ten years" he said, anger evident in his voice. "What, the guy's a walking fishbone...he's pathetic" Snotlout said. "Not to mention useless, scrawny" Tuffnut added. "Even weak, dumb, and overall a loser" Ruffnut added. "Anything you and Fishlegs want to add to that Astrid?" Ripper asked, already wishing he was on the other side of those bars so he could strangle them. She didn't answer.

"I can't believe you guys" Ripper said, pure hatred in his voice. "You can't believe us?! What about you?! You along with him, betrayed us...betrayed our clan!" Astrid yelled. She was tired of Ripper being angry them for no reason. If he could be mad...so could she.

"Did I shove Hiccup's face into a barrel every single day...did I make fun of his mother when she died...did I always blame things on him, just for the fun of it...did I not have his back in those situations...did you ever hear him cry in the night...did you ever see him run into the forests and cry his heart out...did I ever tease him every single time when I saw him...did I never listen to him...did you ever hear him _wishing_ he was _DEAD!_...did I ever make him feel _USELESS!_" he shouted. By now he was holding the bars of his cell and everyone took a step back when he lunged at them.

"Fishlegs was probably the only one who tried to be a friend to him! But you guys began making fun of him when he tried to!" he said, pointing at Snotlout and the Twins. The teens couldn't believe what Ripper had said. "Did...did we really..." Astrid began but was cut off. "Yes you did really!" Ripper shot back. He looked back to Snotlout. "You were his cousin, his blood, and you were the one who tormented him the most...bullied him..._hurt_ him...and you always laughed at him just because in your mind he was a stupid excuse for a Viking...and most of you joined in making fun of him" he said. By now he had calmed down and had let go for the bars. He went back to where he was sitting and slumped down. "I'm done talking" he stated and looked back at the wall.

He head the sound of four pairs of feet walk dissipate as they walked off, but there were five who came. "What are you still doing here?" he asked without turning. Astrid was still there. "You're the person I least want to talk to...after you betrayed him" he said.

"How did I betray him...I did what any other Viking would have done!" she shot back. Right now she wasn't angry...she didn't know what emotion to choose. "He loved you Astrid" he stated. This caught Astrid off guard and her eyes became softer, and she was developing a feeling in her heart which she never felt before.

"He would tell me that every time you smiled at him...it would have brightened up his day. He said he was thankful you didn't bully him, tease him, and because of that he could trust you, and he did trust you. He thought you were different from the others. He wanted to show you Toothless" Ripper said. If he was about to die, he might as well tell her everything since she might never see Hiccup again.

"Look at the blade of your axe" he said. Astrid looked at her axe which she carried with her at her belt and took it and turned it over. She gasped when she saw the word's _Valkyrie's Blade"_ engraved in the metal. "Take a close look at that weapon" he said, but she was already starting to. The axe was light but the blade was perfect, strong, tough, not easily worn. The grip was phenomenal, and suited _her_ perfectly. "Hiccup made that for you" he said.

"But my...dad gave it to me on my 15th birthday" she said. "He never told you where he got it from did he?" he asked. Then it started coming back to her. Hiccup was extremely busy that time she remembered. He only said he was working on something but she didn't know what. "He cared for you...but he knew he would never be able to get because well...there are so many other Vikings who are deserving of you that he's just..._nothing_" he said.

Astrid heard enough and she left him there. She ran...just ran and ran...and ran...not to her home...she ran to the forest, deep into the forest and without knowing, she found herself at the Cove...the same place where found Hiccup and Toothless...and told everyone. The sky was a dark grey now, a storm was coming but this one would be different. She dropped her axe onto the ground and fell to her knees and a few drops of water fell onto the blade with the engraving in it. But it wasn't rain.

Astrid was crying.


	3. Our New Home

**A/N:**** Hey guys, NFS LOVER here. Did you guys get a look at the pictures of how the characters? I mean WOW, Astrid and Hiccup changed so much, and they both look so much better. Hiccup looks more masculine and handsome and Astrid looks as beautiful as ever...although I still believe she's has her fiery personality. Anyway, enjoy!**

_Hiccup's POV_

It's been a day since I left my home...if that's what you can call it. A home is supposed to be a place you feel safe, that there are people who accept you, love you for who you are, even with your flaws and will always have your back. "Clearly I have to rethink a definition of home" I said aloud. Berk were none of those. The only person who probably understood me, other than Ripper was...mom. I miss her every single day. Part of me knows that she wouldn't have liked me siding with a dragon, but part of me also knows that she would have at least listened to me before acting. I guess that's where I got my personality. I got nothing from my father's side...thank Oden.

But then it hit me...Ripper was the only other person who ever accepted me and he committed treason just so that Toothless wouldn't be killed. I knew what we had to do. "Bud, we gotta go back" I said as he turned him around. We landed on an island that was probably about an hour's flying time from Berk and rested there for the night. He nodded and we took off.

_Normal POV_

Ripper was now being led by two guards to the Arena. He knew he was going to face the death penalty for aiding Hiccup but in his mind...he did the right thing. There was another large crowd waiting around the Arena and Stoick was at the other end by his seat, standing up and waiting till the guards left Ripper in there. He was soon in the middle and the guards untied his ropes and walked out, with the iron gate closing behind them. "Ripper Bonemould" Stoick said, causing everyone else to cease their talking. "You are charge with treason against your own tribe for aiding a dragon and..." he paused there. Ripper did not look away but right in his eyes. He saw anger, hurt, sadness and frustration in Stoick's eyes. _"At least he's still human"_ he thought. "...and a traitor" Stoick finished his sentence. "Any last words" he asked.

Ripper looked around the Arena to see that the crowds were still silent. He saw the teens there, even Astrid, but he saw something, faint, but it was there...tear stains. He smiled at them and looked back at Stoick. "I hope you all are happy for you've done to Hiccup...to YOUR son!" he said right at Stoick. Stoick didn't budge.

"Then your death trial will be...by dragon" he said and a Monstrous Nightmare burst through the gates a flame. It jumped onto the walls and walked about right to the ceiling which was held by chains. The dragon looked back at Ripper and at the intent of killing him right there. It dropped down, its body back to normal. Ripper was unfazed though by the dragon. Everyone thought he was scared and because of that couldn't move and began laughing at him. Ripper just smirked and stuck his hand out, his palm ready to accept the dragon.

At first the dragon stopped and was curious about his actions, as seeing this human was unfazed by him. But then he saw his hand stuck out and slowly he reached his snout in and rested Ripper's palm on his snout. The whole crowd gasped and could not believe what they were seeing. This dragon was not attacking Ripper...instead it was obeying him.

The teens could not believe what they were seeing. Fishlegs even fainted when he saw what happened because it was just not possible to tame a dragon. "What whichcraft is this?!" someone shouted. "Whichcraft? Please, this is something that can happen when you listen. This is what Hiccup accomplished with a Nightfury. Dragons are not our enemies" Ripper stated but was stopped by Stoick.

Spitelout threw a spear at the dragon, causing it to break out of its trance and set a flame again. Now the real show had begun, but it was too late. People began hearing the distinct sounds of a Nightfury approaching. "Get down!" Gobber yelled and soon there was a bright flash and a ton of smoke. When people, including the teens recovered from the shockwave of the blast they saw a huge hole in the roof of the Arena and a black shadow shoot out of the hole as well. When they looked up they saw Hiccup on Toothless with Ripper behind him.

"You don't want us fine...we'll _never_ come back...all of you have made that perfectly clear" he said, the last part looking at Astrid who looked away from his eyes because she was afraid that she'd see the hurt. And with a quick flap, Toothless and his riders were on their way to a new life...away from our horrible past.

_Skies of the Sea_

"So what now?" Ripper asked. It's been about an hour since the two left Berk far behind them and now their only question was where to go. "I-I don't know Hiccup" Hiccup said. "It's actually the first time that I feel free but I don't know where to go" he said. Ripper stopped for a second and began thinking. Ripper didn't really have parents, he was like an orphan. A group of sailors had brought him to Berk and asked Stoick to take care of him but they wouldn't say who the parents were or why they were giving him to them.

"If I remember correctly, there should be a tribe that's about four hours away from here, in that direction" he said pointing east. "But do you want to live there?" he asked. "What do you mean?" Hiccup asked.

"Well since we've become Outcasts from our own tribe, we don't know if they might start searching for us or if they're going to warn others about us" he explained. Hiccup nodded his head. Ripper was right. They were Outcasts and basically had to start a new home elsewhere. "But the question is do you want to start a home close to Berk or far away from it?" Ripper asked.

Hiccup got to thinking, find a home close to Berk where they wouldn't expect it, or a home far, far away from Berk and hope they'll never find them. "Well first we need some basic supplies so we'll stop at the tribe you just said" Hiccup said which Ripper said was four hours away from them, flying time anyway. By ship it would take about eighteen hours. At least dragons did have perks.

"So what do we say when we get there?" Ripper asked. "What do you mean, we need a place to stay for a while, food and shelter. What else is there?" Hiccup asked. "Ahem" Ripper coughed and pointed at Toothless. "Oh yeah, well we can see how that goes...I mean after Berk we can handle anything right?" Hiccup said, trying to stay in a positive mood. "If you say so" Ripper said and they both settled in for what would be quite a ride.

_Sharkslane Village_

"Ah Heather, are you done with your activities today?" a big, strong, proud man, with blackish, brownish hair and a beard that could hide a child asked his daughter. "Yes dad, I helped mom with the home tasks and went around the village as well" she replied to her father. The girl had raven black hair, emerald green eyes and a thin figure.

"Take it easy on her Treeroot, she's just a young girl" another voice said, belonging to a woman. She was of the same age as Treeroot and had raven black hair as well and was like every other Viking woman in the village. "Jessel, I need to make sure that she'll be ready someday to take over" Heather's father said. "Dad, first I need to find a suitor who will take me" Heather said.

All of a sudden there were shouts and running could be heard from outside the chief's house. "What the?" Treeroot said as he got up and went outside. He saw his people gather near the shores of the village with swords, shields and were yelling at something in the sky and that's when he saw it...a dragon was approaching. Except he noticed something...there seemed to be other shapes on top of the dragon, and when he looked closely, he gasped, there were humans on the dragon. "There's something you don't see everyday" he said as he ran to the shores as well.

_Ripper's POV_

We were approaching the village when we saw people on the shores of it, and they did not look happy. "We have to land" Hiccup said. "Are you nuts? Do you not see the swords and hear all the war cries?" I asked him. I knew if we landed there was a good chance they were going to kill us. "We have no choice Rip, we need a place to stay" he said. I shook my head knowing he was right but I still didn't like it.

We were soon on the shores of the village and me and Hiccup immediately got off and stood between the crowd and Toothless, who was not liking the attention and was now bearing his teeth and was in dangerous stance which meant he would attack if they did anything bad. "Everyone calm down" Hiccup said as we increased the gap between the crowd and Toothless. "What sorcery is this?!" "What are you doing protecting that dragon?!" "How were you riding it!?" were all the questions that were shot at us. But our main concern was calming everyone down...but that was not working so far.

"Everyone calm down!" we heard a voice say and soon saw a man, the same size and build of Stoick walk in front of the crowd. "Now who are you and how in Thor's name are you riding a Nightfury?" he asked. By this time the whole crowd had calmed down and were listening to what we had to say.

"Everyone, my name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, and this is Ripper Bonemould, we are from the Hairy Hooligan Tribe" he said. "Wait, aren't you Stoick's boy? What are you doing all the way out here?" their chief asked. "It's a long story, and I'll tell you about it over a meal. We are starving and we've been flying for hours" Hiccup said. The chief looked at us and could see the fatigue in our eyes. "On one condition, if that dragon of yours does not harm my people" he said looking at Toothless.

"Oh...Toothless isn't dangerous, if you don't provoke him" Hiccup said rubbing Toothless under his chin to which he purred. The whole crowd stared in awe. A Nightfury, one of the most dangerous dragons out there was purring like a cat to this boy, who was scrawny as a twig. "Why is he called Toothless?" I heard a voice call and when I looked into that direction, my heart stopped beating.

I saw the most beautiful person who has ever walked this place. She had raven black hair, green emerald eyes and a perfect figure that only the Gods themselves could have sculpted. "Heather what are you doing here?" I heard their chief say. "I wanted to know what the commotion was so I came dad" she said as she walked past her dad, approaching Toothless. "Ok, well show them Toothless" Hiccup said.

Toothless opened his mouth to reveal his row of sharp teeth but then in an instant he retracted them. "Wow" I heard Heather say. Toothless then flashed a gummy smile, making everyone laugh and all the kids say "He's cute". "Well this looks like a good start" I said to Hiccup who smiled back. Heather approached Toothless and stuck her hand out to which Toothless gladly allowed to rest on his snout. "He trusts you" I said looking at them. She smiled at me. "Well I guess you two need something to eat yes?" her father said coming up next to her and looking over Toothless.

We both nodded our heads. "Well then, everyone, to the Meade Hall, we have a feast to prepare for our guests!" he exclaimed and everyone cheered and rushed to the Hall.

"Well Ripper, I think we found our new home" Hiccup said. "I looked at Heather who was having a nice time with Toothless. "Yeah, I guess we did" I said.


	4. A New Addition

**A/N:**** Hey guys, NFS LOVER here. Did you guys get a look at the pictures of how the characters? I mean WOW, Astrid and Hiccup changed so much, and they both look so much better. Hiccup looks more masculine and handsome and Astrid looks as beautiful as ever...although I still believe she's has her fiery personality. Anyway, enjoy!**

_Normal POV_

"Your cousin is a real jerk!" Treeroot said. The two had been the in their Hall of a few hours now and Hiccup had told them the entire story of him and Toothless and me, and the events that have taken place that led us here. "Well it is hard to fathom that dragons are trainable creatures...that I guess it's hard for them to understand" Treeroot said, having some understanding for what the people of Berk went through. "How is that so?" Ripper asked putting his mug down.

"Now I know we don't experience dragon attacks as much as Berk, maybe on a few occasions, such as once a week, but we'll get to that later. The Vikings have been fighting dragons for over 300 years, and it is hard to let that past go" he said. "We know that sir, but they couldn't be stubborn about it as Hel. But it's not only that...their treatment of Hiccup over the years...now that was _unforgivable_" Ripper said, getting angry again his friend's treatment.

"I'll agree with you there, your treatment Hiccup was not acceptable in any tribe and I believe you made the right choice in leaving, but I know it's hard for you to understand but this whole dragon training thing...it's new to Vikings, and I believe it will be a while until people accept it" Treeroot said. The two boys still couldn't believe it. Yes they were mad at their tribe's refusal to believe to change for the better, but now, that was a mix for Hiccup's treatment, and no one was more mad than him. He was shunned, teased and degraded for every mistake he made instead of the people helping him learn from it. Even his so called 'friends' didn't like him at all. Sure Astrid didn't talk to him or make fun of him, but she didn't stop any of the times when Snotlout did. She sometimes joined in, just to go with the crowd but nevet cared if it did happen right in front of her. She just minded her own business.

_Hiccup's POV_

"Anyway, what's this about a dragon problem?" I asked, intrigued to this new information. "Ah yes, our attacks are an isolated incident, it is the same dragon every week and it takes our livestock and keeps breaking into our food storage. It is a huge dragon and extremely dangerous. It has already injured a few of my men and it's attacks are getting more deadly" Treeroot explained. This was good news...well not for the village about the attacks but it was a chance for me and Ripper to possibly train this new dragon.

"We'll gladly take a look at this dragon to help you" I said. I couldn't wait to get started. The chief's facial expression lightened. "Oh thank you so much boys" he said. We then heard laughter and looked to see the kids ride Toothless and he was having fun with them as well. They even brought him fish to eat to which he was grateful. "Your dragon is quite something" the chief said. I smiled at Toothless. This village was so quick to change their views of dragons, well not completely, but I believe after them seeing Toothless, should actually cause them to think..._are dragons really friendly creatures_?

"Oh yes, we should warn you about that dragon" Heather said as she took a seat across from us. "What should we know?" Ripper asked. I looked over at him and saw him staring intently at Heather...as if he was lost in her eyes. I laughed on the inside...I know that feeling too well. "I've seen this dragon attack from the ground. It burst out of the ground and I don't think any other dragon does that" she said.

"Bursts out of the ground, noted" Ripper said. "So when do you want to get started Hiccup?" he asked. By the tone of his voice I could tell that he was excited to go. I looked at the chief. "We could started on it if you're ok with it" I said. The chief looked outside and saw there was still some light in the day. The sun was just a few feet above the ocean. "You could get started but you have to be careful. This is a dangerous, rogue, dragon" he said. Me and Rip got up and said our thanks for the meal. I called Toothless over and he bounded to us and we walked outside of the Hall. I knew we wouldn't have much time before dark so we had to find it soon.

"So where do we start?" Ripper asked. "How about the obvious hole in the ground which looks like it leads into the forest" I said, pointing to a huge hole in the ground and it leading to the forest. "Yeah, I knew that" he said as he started following the trail. I simply shook my head smiling, this is going to be a long night.

_Forests of Sharkslane_

We have been following the dragon's path for about an hour now and it just seemed to go in circles. "Ok we are getting nowhere with this" I said. Ripper was also getting frustrated that we didn't get anywhere with finding that dragon. "Well the only other way is going into those tunnels" he said. "Oh no, that's out of the question. There is no way we are going down there. We don't even know what kind of dragon this is" I said. I didn't want to risk dying in our first day here. "Then what do you propose we...shhh" he said all of a sudden.

"What is it?" I asked but he shushed me again. "What do you hear?" I asked, honestly I was getting really scared. "I hear...footsteps?" he said, wondering about the last part. Then I knew someone must have been following us. "Toothless search for our guest" I said and he bounded off into a direction. "You think he knows where the person is?" Ripper asked coming up to me.

"Put me down!" we heard a voice say. "I'm guessing yes" I said with a smile and soon we saw Toothless bound to us holding Heather with his arms. "What were you doing following us?" I asked. "I wanted to help you find that dragon...and can you tell your friend to put me down?" she asked and hand gestured to Toothless to do so and he did.

"Does your dad know you're here?" Ripper asked. The _last_ thing we needed was telling the chief that his daughter was killed by a dragon...especially to a chief who just welcomed us. "Uhhh...yes?" she said but it was a horrible attempt. We both gave her that _Really?_ face. "No" she finally answered as she got up and brushed off the dirt. But then I began thinking, we couldn't split up because there were three of us and one of us had to be with Toothless, but now since there were four...

"Perhaps you could help us" I said. "What?" Ripper and Heather both said at the same time, Ripper's voice being that of _Am I mad?_ and Heather's voice of pure joy. "Absolutely not" Ripper said causing Heather to look at him with a dissatisfied face. "And why not?" she asked crossing her arms. _"Huh, something I loved to see Astrid do...what? No! NO Hiccup! Focus!" _ said to myself. "Well first of all we do not want to tell your dad, 'Sorry sir, your daughter wound up in a dragon's stomach'" he said. "Do you even know what this dragon looks like?" she asked.

"I think I do" I said as I was staring at something that I never wanted to see. "What?" they both asked looking at me and I simply pointed past them and when they looked I could tell they had the same facial expression as I did. In front of us..._looking_ at us...was a..._Whispering Death_. "That's...That's a...Whispering Death" Ripper stuttered. "Is it dangerous?" Heather asked backing away from it, as was Ripper and closer to me and Toothless...who was already ready for a charge by the dragon.

"Well it's boulder class, extremely big and very..._very_ territorial" I said. "Guys, I think those tunnels were also a boundary line" I said, marking its territory. They didn't have any time to reply as the dragon lunged at us. Toothless managed to get all of us out of the way before the dragon engulfed us in its mouth. It's head was huge, bigger than Toothless I believe, and I knew it was going to be tough controlling this dragon.

"Hiccup get on Toothless and control him, I'll handle things on the ground" Ripper said. After seeing what we've been through, I trusted Ripper like a brother and listened to him. I hooked up to Toothless and we took off to engage that dragon.

_Normal POV_

Heather and Ripper ran to clear ground away from the battle that was taking place behind them, but they couldn't escape everything when the Whispering Death was thrown right into a tree in front of them. They looked back to see Toothless land with Hiccup getting off and running up to them. It appears that the hit against the giant tree caused large branches to fall and trap its tail under tremendous weight. The three teens and their dragon slowly approached the mad dragon. It wasn't thrashing about but looking to release its tail from the pile of branches.

"Let me take this Hiccup" Ripper said as he moved forwards slowly. "What?" Hiccup said and ran to stop his friend. "Rip, I know you like her...I've seen you looking at her in the hall, but trust me...this is not a way to impress a girl" Hiccup said, worried that his friend might be hurt or worse in his attempt to calm the dragon down. "Hiccup...it has nothing to do with her...I think I can calm this dragon down" he said. Hiccup saw the belief in Ripper's eyes...the belief that he could do it. "Alright, but any signs that it might go wrong...you jump back immediately" he said and walked back to Toothless.

Ripper approached the dragon slowly. It was still trying to free its tail from the heavy branches that fell onto it. It was too busy in its task to escape that it didn't notice Ripper approach him. He stopped at the distance where the dragon could not get when he tried to come at him. That's when the dragon stopped and looked at him. Ripper saw its eyes...it's plain white eyes...no pupils at all and something that can install terror in the dreams of children and adults.

It stopped it's roars and was now staring at Ripper, not sure if he was a threat or food. Hiccup, Heather and Toothless watched on as the dragon neared its gigantic head to Ripper. Hiccup...with all his experience with Toothless...was not sure how this dragon would behave.

"It's ok...I'm a friend" Ripper said as he raised his hand out. The dragon stopped as he raised his hand out...almost as if nor sure what to do. He saw the dragon look back at Toothless and his friends, almost as if asking if they were a threat. "Don't worry...they're not going to hurt you...none of us are" Ripper said in a calm voice. Hiccup was impressed by his friend's progress. He was handling the situation quite well. He clearly watched and listened during the times he spent training with Toothless.

Ripper's hand was now in the air, waiting for the Whispering Death to rest his snout upon. Ripper never broke eye contact with the dragon. He kept a clam aura about him to show the dragon that he can be trusted. Slowly but surely, the dragon inched its head closer to his hand...until he felt the familiar press of scales against his hand. Ripper smiled seeing the dragon had showed that he trusted him. But this was different than what he did with the Nightmare. He felt a...a connection with this dragon.

"Dude, that was awesome!" Hiccup said coming up to him and patting him on the back, Toothless close behind him. Heather was the last to arrive, and her jaw was wide open at what she just saw. "That...was...amazing" she stated, completely impressed at what unfolded in front of her. "Is that how you gain a dragon's trust?" she asked looking at the Whispering Death who was also looking at her...but not in a threatening way.

"Yeah, you have be calm and not be tense around a dragon, and just with the right mindset, you can tame one" Ripper explained. Heather continued to gaze in awe at the Whispering Death that was right now nuzzling in Ripper's hand. "Can I try?" she asked. Ripper and Hiccup both looked at each other. Hiccup nodded his head and Ripper gestured Heather over.

"Give me your hand" he said, not removing his from the dragon's snout. Heather slowly gave her hand to Ripper. By now the dragon noticed this new human who to him seemed scared. The dragon cocked its head to a side as if asking _what's wrong with you?_ "Stay calm ok, I'll be behind you if anything goes wrong" Ripper said as he placed Heather's hand on the dragon's snout and slowly let go. "Yeah?" she asked, hoping he would be because she was completely new to this. "Yes" he replied back and as surely walked behind her and held her hands from the back, a way of telling her he would not leave.

But soon Heather grew more accustomed to this new feeling...of being connected to a dragon. She had never been this close to a dragon, and a dragon that was basically wanted attention. The feel of its scales was new, she also felt as though she could connect with this dragon, think what it was thinking. "Wow" was all she was able to say at this new feeling.

"See you're a natural" Ripper said as he slowly let go of her arms for her to take this by herself. Heather didn't seem to notice as she was too entranced by her situation now. "Well I think that takes care of the dragon problem now" Hiccup said as he came by Ripper's side along with Toothless. Might as well get him back to the village to show their problems are over" Hiccup said as he mounted Toothless.

"Tell me Hiccup, is this what you hoped would have happened on Berk?" Ripper asked, looking at Heather make friends with this huge dragon. Hiccup also looked at her, this huge dragon being gentle towards a human much smaller than itself and allowing a person so close to it. "Yeah" Hiccup said, but more in a care free tone, a sign that he had moved past his memories in Berk...most of them anyway.

"You can bring back Heather and the dragon. I'll tell them about the success we had" Hiccup said and took off. "You know we should get back to the village" Ripper said coming back to the dragon. "Can we ride him?" Heather asked looking away from the dragon for once. "Sure...that is if you want to have spikes in every part of your body" Ripper said gesturing the spiked body of the dragon. "So walking then?" she asked. "You bet" he said and raised his hand out. She smiled and she gladly took it and they began their walk home. Ripper then felt a nudge at his shoulder and saw the dragon wanted to come as well.

"Hey buddy, three's a crowd" Ripper said jokingly, to which he got a hard nudge from Heather. "Oh alright you can come...given that you behave yourself" he said as they continued back to the village with a new friend in tow.


	5. Feelings

_Berk - Astrid's POV_

The mood of the village was in the least...happy you could say. All of them were happy that _Hiccup the Useless_ had left, along with Ripper, who, and this cannot be put nicely, betrayed our tribe, betrayed our past...by siding with dragons. I was extremely shocked, angry, furious, confused when I saw Hiccup with that...that..._beast_, and I just had to tell Stoick. I had to warn him about his son and the treason he committed.

The dragons are our mortal enemies and will continue to be our enemies, and that's something I learned to live with. But Hiccup...oh he was a different case. He thought he could change the ways that people thought...make _us_ turn on our pasts...forgetting the hundreds of lives that were lost trying to protect Berk from those creatures. But...no matter how much I tried to believe it, there was this strange feeling...this new emotion that was nagging at my brain.

_"Did you ever hear him cry his heart out...did you ever hear him wish he was Dead!"_ I kept hearing. What Ripper told me about Hiccup, how he felt every single day of his life...what the people of Berk did to him...it made me feel...sorry for him. _"What?! No Astrid...you don't feel sorry for anyone...especially that twig. I'm glad he's gone"_ I convinced myself. And I should look around me just to prove it. People were happy. There were no explosions, no angry shouting, no _mistakes!_. Everything had took a turn for the better ever since Hiccup left...except the chief. He was never the same after Hiccup left.

He kept blaming himself for Hiccup's betrayal. He said if he had seen the signs early on, he could have stopped his son from turning against his people. He could have trained him into a Viking, granted Oden knows how long that'll take but...eventually he could become a Viking.

But the chief was not himself. He barely showed up to his duties, he didn't talk to anyone...Gobber tried so hard to get his friend to talk to him but was met with only silence every time he tried. We all became worried for him. Some of the villagers tried to say that it was for the better that Hiccup had left. But Stoick's mood still didn't budge. I suspect that he would be like this for a while.

The teens thought even less of Hiccup. Snotlout said he was a traitor and deserved to be picked on...if not more. The twins didn't even like it one bit and refused to talk about Hiccup, or Ripper. Fishlegs didn't know what to say...or think for the matter ever since he saw what Ripper had done in the ring, who claimed that Hiccup was the one who taught him. They both were traitors now in the minds and hearts of the villagers. They wanted nothing to do with them anymore and would even forget the event even happened in the first place. But that would not be easy for me.

Ripper told me _everything_ and I couldn't help but think...what if we had treated Hiccup better. I mean how was it our fault that he made mistakes, burned down a few buildings, was the cause of so much damage in the village and made dragon raids even worse. In all honesty, it was a blessing that he left, but with a blessing, there are consequences.

The teens felt something in their life was missing, and they didn't even know what it was. I bet I was the only one who knew that it was Hiccup. It seemed like people even tried to forget the name, and they were accomplishing that well. And I probably forgot to mention, but it has been one month since the..._event_ in the ring. Even though there seems to be less trouble, there were still the continuous raids on Berk at night, and a growing number of times in the day as well. I had accelerated to the top of my class in dragon training, where I had always been, and I'm proud to say that I did kill a dragon...not in the ring but in one of the raids, and I was praised for being the first teen to do so. Life was good on Berk...but today was different.

It's as if today was marking a page turning in the books, something was coming and whatever it was...it wouldn't be good.

_Sharkslane Village - Hiccup's POV_

It's been a month since we arrived here and things couldn't be going more perfectly. When we brought the Whispering Death to the village, all of them were at first terrified of how big and dangerous it looked but since Ripper and Heather were walking right in front of it, and it wasn't attacking them, they stayed their distance, but they welcomed it by giving it large amounts of fish showing the dragon that they can be trusted and they don't want to be enemies. The dragon gladly accepted the fish and Ripper gave him its name...Bladewing. The dragon seemed to nod at the name, understanding that that what was what it was going to be called on from now on. It always followed Ripper around, seeing that he was the person that he first trusted, but it also took a liking to Heather since she was the second person and that they both did.

Toothless Bladewing both got along well...well since they were the only two dragons for miles I guess you have no choice but to make friends. When we came though I found that the chief was searching for his daughter and was none too happy when he found out she had sneaked away to join us in the search for the dragon. She received a week's worth of cleaning the stables which she hated...but you have to pay for any consequences right. She didn't do it alone because Ripper came each day to help her, and since Bladewing came with him, the work was cut dramatically in half.

Ripper and Heather had bonded dramatically over the last month. The village rumours were that they were...well 'dating'...you could say, and in a way they were. They always used to go for walks in the forest, with Bladewing after them. The dragon had developed a protective instinct over the two of them...which was intriguing. Fishlegs would have loved to have written that down in the Book of Dragons.

It's been a month since we left Berk and I couldn't have been more glad...except for one part of me...when I say part I mean _extremely_ small part, can't help but feel I left something behind in Berk..._Astrid_. I could see the hurt in her eyes when I came back to get Ripper, and on our way here he told me that he told them about how I had felt all these years. He said that Astrid was the last one left when he was talking and that she ran out with what he believed were tears in her eyes. That was a first...Astrid crying?...And over Hiccup the Useless? Actually she would have been crying over how badly I was treated...but I'll never know and I don't want to know. I left that life behind me and I've embraced my new life here on Sharkslane Village.

Treeroot was very grateful at the deed my and Ripper did for him on our first day here and asked if we wanted anything in return. I asked if he had a forge in the village. He said that the village smith lived on the outskirts of the village in his forge and that he had passed away a few months ago. He had no family so there was no one there to take over the forge. I told him I used to be an apprentice back at my _old_ home, and that I could possibly take over. He was glad that there was another smith now in town and he gave us the keys to the forge and soon me and Ripper were on our way there, with our dragons carrying some of the stuff we'll need to make it a home for us.

"Wow" I said as we saw the building. It was old, the boards looked like they were rotting, some boards were out of place and cracked, or broken. Thankfully the inside was much better. We'd just need dust the place and do an exterior job of the house. The work took us about a week to do but once it was done, the building looked as good as new. The exterior looked better, we added a new smelter, new fireplace, new workbenches, a new grindstone and now it looked like a smithy's.

Life couldn't get better...but I knew that someday, that was about to change.


	6. Past Catches Up

_5 Years Later - Astrid's POV_

"Remind me again why we're going to Sharkslane Village?" I heard Fishlegs asked. "Because our forge was burned down in the last dragon raid and that is the closest village in where we can get more weapons and that are weapons will be fixed" I said. I swear to Oden he's been complaining about this journey for nine hours now. It was an eighteen hour trip by ship and it was well into the night now. We'd be arriving in the morning tomorrow to the village. Nothing much has changed in the last five years, except that dragon raids had become more frequent...and that we had all changed.

Snotlout still had his arrogant, bashful personality which I hated...and he still tried to hit on me, even after countless attempts at injuring him...he still didn't get the big picture of how I would _never ever_ go out with him. He also had sprouted a small beard and had grown a bit taller and put on a bit more muscle. It was the same with Tuffnut. He was still his...dumb self I guess you could say...his hair style hadn't changed much and he also was growing a beard. Fishlegs had lost a bit of weight and in place of it was more muscle. He had grown a bit taller and also had a small beard as well. Tuffnut's and Fishlegs' personalities were still intact, as were most of our personalities.

Me and Ruffnut had grown quite a bit as well and it was evident on our bodies. Our outline was more defined now, but as we've grown we've still retained the shape from when we were fourteen. I'd say out of the five of us, me and Ruff had matured, well Ruff had matured a lot but still she argued and fought with her brother every once in a while. But I knew this trip had something more in it. Stoick was looking for Hiccup...I wouldn't say looking but to make sure he's still alive or if he's anywhere. So far the villages we visited in the past had stories of two boys coming to their aid with their dragons. I remember only seeing Hiccup and his...dragon, but maybe Ripper also got a dragon of his own. Either way I didn't care because it was none my business and that they had been marked as traitors for life in our tribe, although I had to admit it...I did miss Hiccup...a little. He was the only one who didn't act tough and strong, he acted himself even though all of us didn't like it.

"Hey Astrid, do you want to bunk with me tonight?" Snotlout called from the deck. I sighed and I threw a harpoon right at the railing at where he was. He squeaked a bit and fell back down. "Does that answer your question?" I asked him and turned back to Ruffnut.

"Will he ever stop?" she asked looking at him getting back up and dusting himself off. "You and I both know he'll never learn" I said not paying attention to him. "What do you think we'll find at Sharkslane?" she asked. I didn't know much about the tribe, except that their chief and ours new each other well. They were friends. "I don't know Ruff, it's mainly a business trip right now, just to ask them to repair our weapons and we'll pay'em and leave" I said. "Yeah, we'll be staying there for a about four days. Enough time to see if they're any hot guys" she said leaning against the railing. "Why don't you ever go out with any one Astrid?" she asked.

"Because I don't want to Ruff. Snotlout it just...ugh...and Fishlegs and Tuff are not anywhere near my type. "What about you?" I asked.

"Well, out of them...Fishlegs seems pretty cute" she said and I don't think she even realized she said it. "Cute, someone has a crush" I said smirking. "So what, I'm looking for a guy Astrid, and you should do the same. We're that age where we are supposed to be married off and I'm looking at my options. Fishlegs doesn't seem all-Viking but he's nice and sweet. People say you and Snotlout should go out" she said and I almost lost my meal when she said that.

"It's because you two are the best Vikings in the village and you two would make a good match" she explained. "There is still no way in Hel that'd I go out with him" I said. We looked out on the horizon and I sighed. _"Someone's meant for me...and he's out there somewhere...I just wish I knew who he was"_ I said to myself and we went below deck to get some rest for tomorrow.

_The Next Day - Ripper's POV_

It was another day on Sharkslane Village and I loved every single day of it ever since we came here. I rose up from my bed slowly as the sun's ways made its way through my window. I looked to my left to see my _wife_ sleeping peacefully beside me. I smiled to myself. I still wonder how things would have been if he was still here. I looked out the window. "I'm sorry bud" I said, remembering that day. It was the happiest day of my life, but it was also the saddest.

"Ripper" I heard my name being called and looked to see Heather getting up. "Is everything alright?" she asked, looking at me with concern in her eyes.

"Everything's fine Heather, I was just thinking about him" I said. She also smiled sadly. She missed him too and she noticed the change his departure left on me. But that was over a year ago and now I have a wife to take care of and I'm in charge of the forge. "I miss him too Ripper, but he wouldn't want you moping about his absence" she said placing her hand on my shoulder and giving me that smile of hers I loved. "You always know how to cheer me up" I said getting up out of bed. "Well I think since we've been living together for a year I would know you better than anyone" she said.

We then heard a roar from outside and saw Bladewing come up to the window looking at us. "Really bud, do you know what privacy is?" I asked jokingly and watch him cock his head to one side. "He's hungry Ripper, you better give him his food before he loses it" she said getting out of bed and going up to the window. "Get back down there and wait for him to come out" she said sternly and Bladewing did just that. "He's my dragon and he listens to you?" I asked as I got my shoes and shirt on. "Well most guys do because they know what happens if they don't" she said looking back at me. "Oh yeah, and what's that?" I asked, not believing that she could be tough. "Do you really want to find out?" she asked crossing her arms and staring at me with a deadly glare. "No ma'am" I said and I bolted downstairs to feed Bladewing.

When I came out I saw Bladewing waiting at his stable for his barrel of fish which I was rolling to him. I pulled the barrel upright and removed the lid and the first piece I threw into his mouth was an eel. You see me and Hiccup discovered that a Whispering Death doesn't like sunlight but once when we gave it an eel, it came out and we came to the conclusion that an eel helps with its weakness to the sun. Ever since then Bladewing could roam wherever he wanted to without worry.

"It's going to be a long day Blade" I said as he dug into his morning meal. "So what do you have to do today?" Heather asked me coming out, all dressed, it still amazes me how she gets dressed, straightens her hair and get refreshed so fast.

"Well I have to repair some of Meathand's butcher tools, I have to repair the mesh for the fishing nets, and I have to fix up your father's garden tools. And that's just the morning work" I said. It gets really busy here on this island so it keeps me busy and I earn a lot as well. "Well leave your night free" she said picking up a basket. "Why?" I asked.

"Because I have plans with you tonight" she said with a wink and I laughed. It has been a while since we did _that_. "Where are you going?" I asked. She had a basket and I remembered she didn't have any chores.

"I'm going into the forest to pick a few wild berries and flowers" she said. "Take Bladewing with you" I said and I gestured Bladewing to go with her and he gladly made his way to her. "Don't you need him at the forge with all your work?" she asked as the dragon joined her side.

"Well I don't need him today because I'm not doing any heavy work, and plus there are wolves out there and I don't want you to be on your own...remember what happened last time?" I asked, recalling the last time she went alone. "I did not know that baby wolf had parents...it came to me" she argued. "My point is that I don't want something like that to happen again" I said and she smiled.

"Thanks for caring so much" she said and gave me a soft kiss on the lips and turned around to the forest path with Bladewing behind her.

"Today's gonna be a long day" I said as I took my sword and keys and began my walk to the forge.

_Docks of Sharkslane - Astrid's POV_

"Get those ropes ready!" Stoick yelled. We were at the docks of Sharkslane Village and just needed to tie the ropes and could disembark. The dock's foreman came out with a few others and helped tie the ship. Gobber raised the gangplank for us to get off.

"Welcome to Sharkslane, I'm Griplock the foreman, and you are?" he asked looking at all of us. "I'm chief Stoick from the Hairy Hooligan Tribe and we've come here to fix some of our weapons because ours was burned down in a dragon raid" he explained. "Dragon raid huh? Never had that here in over five years" he said.

"Really?" Stoick asked. "Yeah, we only had one dragon problem but that was taken care of" he said. Before Stoick could ask another question, "The forge is not in the village, it's down that path through the forest" he said pointing to the path. "Thank you, come on all of you" he said and Gobber and Snotlout proceeded to push the cart they brought their weapons in.

"They _had _a dragon problem?" Tuffnut asked. "What do you think they did with it once they killed it?" Snotlout asked. Since they said they took care of the problem the only solution was that they probably killed it. "Whatever they did with it, it isn't our business, now com' on al of you" Stoick said as he led the group to the forge.

"Ruffnut do you see that?" I asked. "See what? All I see is a normal village with people minding their own business" she said looking around. "That" I said turning her head to a stable that had no animals but had a huge amounts of fish in a sort of dish inside. "Don't animals eat grass, not fish?" I asked. She also looked thought it was strange. "Well whatever lives in there I don't think it's livestock" she said. "Wait, are those spikes?" she asked, and pointed to a few spikes embedded in the walls of the stable.

"Yeah, must have been the dragon they were talking about" I said, not giving it a second thought and followed the others to the forge. I couldn't wait to get back to Berk because in all honesty, there's no excitement here at all.

_Ripper's POV_

I had already set a fire going and was outside now cutting some wood for the smelter and fireplaces. Today was a really beautiful day. I saw a few birds flying about and chirping their music and this place wasn't as cold as Berk. It was warmer and I liked it a lot. There was always a cool breeze that refreshed you every time you took a step outside and it never got old.

It's times like these that I wish Hiccup was around. We enjoyed the life we led here for over three to four years. I felt bad because I believe it was my happiness that caused him to leave. I told him I wouldn't do it but he didn't want to stand in the way of my feelings but he said that he couldn't live here. The thing is he pushed me to do what I wished because he wanted me to be happy. He was being his usual self, always caring about others more than himself.

"You still haven't visited mate" I said to no particular. I wish he would drop by and see how we were doing, but I just tell myself he'll come...eventually. After I finished cutting the necessary pieces of wood, I picked them up and headed back to the forge.

_Normal POV_

The group was now near the forge and they could see the smoke coming from the chimney, indicating the smithy was already there. "Ok everyone, we just hand him our weapons, tell him what needs to be fixed and to buy a few more ok?" Stoick asked and all the teens and Gobber nodded. He knocked on the window doors that gave a view to inside the forge.

Ripper heard a knock coming from the window counter. "Never get anyone this early" he said to himself and went up to the counter.

"Hello and how may I help you..." he said as he opened the shutters and stopped when he saw who was on the other side of them. The whole group from Berk was staring at who was in front of them. Five years might have gone by but certain features stay the same.

Ripper saw everyone; Stoick, Astrid, Fishlegs, the Twins, Snotlout and Gobber all there, with mouths wide open. Ripper was in total shock to have his mouth open. "Oh boy" he said and which everyone heard. He slowly reached out to the handles of both the shutters and closed the window. He slowly turned around, and removed his apron and hung it on the clothes rack. He then saw the side door which was open and _bolted_ for it.

At the same time the group of teens and the two adults were also in shock. "That was Ripper wasn't it?" Snotlout asked. "Uh-huh" everyone answered. And just at that moment they saw bolt out of the side door that they didn't see and into the forest. "After him!" Stoick yelled and soon all the teens were hot on his trail.

Ripper ran as fast as he could. He took a quick glance back and saw that the teens were also close behind with Astrid in the front. _"Seeing that I know the terrain, that's my only advantage"_ Ripper thought and tried zigzagging through the forest, but the teens were close behind. The terrain was just like Berk so there was no real advantage...only for them because they had the numbers.

"Ruff, Tuff flank him!" Astrid said and without hesitation the twins went off into a direction with the other three still close on Ripper.

They had been running for a couple of minutes now when Ripper turned around again and saw only three of them. _"Wait, where are the...__"_ his question was answered when he was tackled onto the ground by the Twins.

"Well, well, well...look at what we've found" Snotlout said as the other three stopped. "How long did you think you could hide from us traitor" Tuffnut said. "Well let me see...forever" Ripper answered as he was pulled up by Astrid. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Living my life away from all of you...what does it look like?" he spat back. Ruffnut took some rope she had with her and bound his hands behind his back. At that point Stoick and Gobber caught up with them.

"Never thought I'd see you again" Stoick said. "Same here" Ripper mumbled. "You do know you're still a traitor right Ripper?" Fishlegs said, in a more friendly tone. "I know that...now what are you going to do with me?" he asked. "Take you back to Berk for another trial" Stoick said as he gestured Astrid to lead him back to the village. "This time you're not getting away" she said as she pushed Ripper in front of her, with everyone heading back to the village.

_Sharkslane Village_

Treeroot was just coming back from the Hall after a discussion with the elders when he bumped into Griplock. "Hey chief did ya' know that ther was a ship docking today?" he asked. "No I didn't, who was it?" he asked. Normally the foreman would know if there's a ship docking because they inform ahead of time. "A ship from Berk. It had the chief and a bunch of young adults. Thought you knew something about it" he said and continued on his way.

"From Berk. Oh no...Ripper" he said but just at that moment he saw the group from Berk enter the village with Ripper and his hands bound. "Stoick what is the meaning of this!" Treeroot said as he blocked the way to the docks.

"Treeroot, we this man was a traitor to our Viking way of life and escaped his death sentence and now must be taken back to Berk to be trialed again...wait...did ye' know that he was here?" Stoick asked. "Yes I did" Treeroot answered, unafraid of how Stoick would respond. "What you were hiding him!?" he yelled. "No Stoick I wasn't and he wasn't hiding...he was living here" Treeroot replied calmly.

"Dad?" they heard a voice come and they saw Heather with...with...a "DRAGON!" Fishlegs screamed as they saw a Whispering Death behind the girl. "Don't worry miss, I'll protect you!" Snotlout said and ran up to Heather and tried to get her away from the supposed beast behind them. "Everyone, your weapons..." Stoick said but then when he reached for his hammer he realized that they all left it in the cart that was at the forge.

"EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" Treeroot yelled at the top of his lungs and everyone did stop panicking, except for Heather and Ripper because they didn't see the need to panic.

"What do ya' mean calm down, there's a dragon behind her" Gobber said. The Whispering Death was now growling at the visiting party because it saw a stranger trying to take Heather and that Ripper's hands were bound. "Snotlout will you please get your hands off her" Ripper said, not liking the idea that _Snotlout_ was touching his wife and trying to show off because she caught his attention.

"And why should I traitor?" he spat back, still not releasing his arm from hers. "Because she is my daughter...and Ripper is my son-in-law" Treeroot said and everyone stood with mouths open again that day. "You mean...that..." Snotlout started but was cut off. "I'm married to Ripper...now let go" Heather said kicking him in the knee and he limped away on one leg back to the crowd.

"And Stoick you better let him go because his dragon ain't too happy to see his rider tied up" Treeroot said. "His rider?" Astrid asked and they looked at Ripper and back at the Whispering Death who looked like it was about to charge at them but was being held back by Heather.

"Yes I'm his rider, and will you let me go because he will attack if these bindings aren't cut" he said gesturing to his hands. "Let him go Stoick, we can talk about this in the Hall" Treeroot said. "You have a lot of explaining to do Treeroot" Stoick said and cut Ripper's bindings off. He immediately walked away from them and Heather came running to him and hugged him tightly. "Next time, you're taking Bladewing when you go to work" she said with a smirk and as if on cue, Bladewing nudged his master's shoulder, asking whether he was ok. "I'm fine bud" he said scratching the dragon's chin.

"Now please come" Treeroot said as he walked to the Hall with Ripper, Heather, Bladewing and the Berkians behind him. This was going to be a long night.


	7. Reasons

**A/N: I'm really happy with all the positive views on this story. I want to thank all the people who have read and reviewed this story. Here's another chapter so enjoy. **

_Normal POV_

The walk to the Hall was a quiet one, the main chatter was from Heather and Ripper with their dragon behind them. The group from Berk talked amongst themselves.

"How in the name of Loki did he get a Whispering Death?" Ruffnut asked. "Yeah, first Hiccup got a Night Fury, now Ripper's got a Whispering Death, they're one of the two most powerful and dangerous dragons known" Fishlegs said. They stole another glance behind them to see the dragon being petted by Heather like it was a puppy. "You know, I'm starting to think Hiccup was probably right about dragons" Fishlegs said.

"What!?" was the response from the others. "That dragon had the intent of killing us. I mean didn't you see the way it was staring at me?" Snotlout said, remembering looking into the milky white eyes of the dragon. "Well maybe because it thought you were trying to harm Ripper's wife" Astrid said.

"Astrid, don't tell me you're starting to think differently about this" Ruffnut said. It already looked like Fishlegs was turning to the other side, but Astrid now? "I'm nto Ruff, I'm simply looking at it from another perspective" she answered. "You mean the dragon's perspective?" Tuff asked, laughing a bit. "I wouldn't go any farther Tuff you want your head cut off" she said and turned back forward. "Let's just hear what Ripper has to say" she concluded and soon they entered the Hall.

Treeroot beckoned everyone to leave saying that the group and him had some important matters to discuss. The villagers left without trouble and soon it was just the Berkians, Treeroot, Heather Ripper and Bladewing in the Hall. They all took seats at two tables across from each other and faced one another. "Ok Ripper, would you please start" Treeroot asked.

"(sigh) Alright, it all started when Hiccup came back to rescue me, after that we had been flying for about five hours before we decided that we needed to land somewhere for food and shelter and them maybe move on. I told Hiccup of this village and he said it was a good place to stop for the night. When we landed though all the villagers had their swords at the ready because we came on a dragon, Toothless...the Night Fury if you don't remember"

"We stood in the way of them and Toothless because their initial reaction is to attack and kill dragons..." "Like all Vikings are supposed to do" Tuff butted in. "...yeah. So that's when Treeroot came in and told everyone to back off and let me and Hiccup explain. He explained that dragons aren't what we thought they were...that they were intelligent, protective and caring creatures. That's why Bladewing here was going to attack because he thought you all were a threat when you had me tied and Snotlout was trying to take Heather away from him" Ripper said.

"Do you really think that I'm supposed to believe that that beast next to you is some kind of guard dog" Snotlout said but received a loud growl from the dragon, and he quickly backed down. _"I'm going to rip him limb from limb if he says something else about me"_ a voice said. "Calm down Bladewing" Ripper said to which all the Berkians looked at him.

"Where was I? Oh yes...we showed the villagers who peaceful Toothless was and Heather was the first one to come up to him, and unlike all of you, she was willing to accept some change. We then went to the Hall and we told our life stories" Ripper said.

"Did you all really treat Hiccup that way?" Treeroot asked, wanting to know if something like that was even possible. "There was nothing wrong with the way we treated him, he was always messing things up and caused problems for all of us" Snotlout said, and except three of them nodded their heads. "Stoick, you really let your son be treated like that?" he asked his friend. "I told him to handle it on his own" Stoick countered. "It doesn't hurt to show a son that his father cares" Tressroot shot back. "Continue Ripper" he said.

"We told him about our lives and how we ended up here, and he said we could stay. Then he told us there was a dragon problem they had, and it was Bladewing. We went out to try and tame him and with some interruption..." he said looking at Heather who merely looked away blushing. "...we were finally able to gain is trust and he followed us here. The village were amazed at what he had done and Treeroot offered us a home and work here at the forge and we never left" Ripper explained.

"Wait, if you and Hiccup came here together, then where is he?" Astrid asked. They then all saw Ripper's facial expression change to one of sadness. "It's all my fault he said. "No it's not Ripper" Heather said lifting his chin up. "He's not...he's not dead is he?" Stoick asked, with concern in his eyes. "No he's not...not that I know of" Ripper said. "What's that supposed to mean?" Fishlegs asked.

"Well..."

_One Year Ago - Ripper's POV_

_"Hey Hiccup, can you do me a favour?" I asked walking into the forge. He was working on some weapons that the chief had asked him to. "Yeah Rip, what do you need?" he asked, stopping his work turning around. I wasn't sure how to ask this, because I didn't know how he would react. "Well...I need help w-with...this..." I said and handed him a piece of paper. I immediately saw his face drop, but he quickly changed it to one of shock. _

_"You want me to make these?" he asked showing me the paper. On the paper were two rings with details on what each part should be. "Yeah, the ring itself should be gold and in the middle, I'm planning to have a have a diamond and one of Bladewing's dragon scales fused together" I explained. He looked over the paper about ten times I believe. "The only problem I see is that a diamond is not easily melted...but other than that, it looks magnificent" he said. I smiled, thanking him for his complement. I had been working on the design of the ring for over a week. _

_"I presume you have the gold and diamonds to make this ring?" he asked setting the paper on a workbench. "Yeah, I saved up enough money and paid trader Johann a handsome price for them" I said. He told me he went through a lot of trouble to get it, but I was thankful for him. "I can't believe he's kept this word this long" I heard Hiccup say. "Well he did say that it's thank to us business has improved significantly when he comes to this village" I said. It had rocketed in the last two years. _

_"What do you say we get started on it right now?" he asked and I pulled out the cloth that held the gold and diamond and brought some of Bladewing's scales as well. We made a mould of the ring in no time and we melted the gold and poured it in the mould and gave it time to harden. In the meantime, Hiccup decided to melt the scales and apply that to the diamond, so that it will appear the diamond is a rare green kind. The scales took a long time to melt, but Hiccup said the diamonds would have taken a longer time. _

_As soon as the scales were a nice shiny green liquid, we dipped the two small diamonds in it and when we took them out, they were perfectly coated in the green liquid, so nice that the usual traits of a diamond were still there but, it was green. Usually people might think it's an emerald, but the diamond traits remained that that claim could be acquitted. _

_"Wow Hiccup, you did an incredible job, thank you so much" I said patting him on the shoulder. "Yeah no problem" he said, but there was a problem. His tone...I don't think I ever heard him _this_ sad before. And I could've sworn I saw a tear run down his cheek but he made no attempt to hide it. "Hiccup...what's wrong?" I asked, facing him. "Nothing...Rip...let's just get back to...to the ring...yeah that's it" he said and went to see of the gold had frozen and were in shape now. _

_"Hiccup" I said in a more serious tone. "Tell me what's wrong" I said again. "All of it" he meekly answered. "What?" I asked, not understanding the angle he was coming from. He didn't answer but when I looked back at when he saw the designs and his attitude now. "It's my marriage isn't it" I asked. He turned around and I could see his eyes brimming with tears. I had never seen him so sad in a long time. _

_"Hiccup...I won't marry her if it's gonna make you feel...like this" I said gesturing to all of him. His stance had gone wonky, he was about to cry and I knew the reason why. "No Ripper, you love her and she loves you...I do believe it's time you two...tied the knot" he said, wiping away at his eyes before he really broke down. "Hiccup, I don't want to see you this..." I started but was cut off. _

_"Ripper, I know how much you love her and you two would make a perfect couple, just come back tomorrow and the rings will be ready" he said turning around and focusing on the now completed rings. All he had to do was add the diamonds. "Ok, but please talk to me" I said and I walked out. _

_Hiccup's POV_

_I can't believe my best friend is getting married. When he showed me his designs I was excited for him but...something inside me broke and know he knew it as well. He was getting _married_ and soon he'd have to devote his life to Heather. That's the thing that got me...it'll be weird for me because...the girl I love or loved...ratted me out four years ago._

_After Ripper left I got a chance to go over my thoughts. I was happy for Ripper, extremely happy, but part of myself couldn't accept that he had found love and I didn't. He knew why I was sad but he didn't bring it up. I was thankful for that. I didn't want him to worry about me. Maybe you would think it's stupid, being jealous of your best friend who had found his match and was getting married. Don't get me wrong, I am excited...but I wish I was in his shoes getting married, finding the right girl. _

_There are a few other girls here...but none of them are my type. I don't even know if I'll ever find _her_, the right one for me. I knew that part of me wouldn't be able to keep seeing Ripper and Heather happy. I'm guessing that's my jealous part talking. He would be waking up in a bed next to someone he loves for the rest of his life now, and he'll also have responsibilities now as well. I can't stay here. That's why I am going to leave. _

_The Wedding Day - Ripper's POV_

_Everyone had gathered for the wedding. It was another traditional Viking wedding. Everyone knew Heather and now since we had four years to know people on the island, everyone on the island knew me and Hiccup. I was dressed in the traditional groom's clothing and was wearing my Viking helmet and Heather looked _absolutely gorgeous._ She had a nice white dress, her cheeks were red, from some makeup and she was wearing a gold circlet on her head as her bridal crown. Her mother looked on with pride for her daughter, that she was getting married. Hiccup was also there with Toothless, smiling because he was happy for me...but I knew part of him hurt on the inside...badly...and I knew what he was planning to do. _

_We exchanged our vows and we slipped the rings on each other. There was cheering and clapping when we locked lips and Bladewing let go of some white flowers above us. She held my hand as we walked to our house and I drove in the sword I made for us into the wooden beam, and it went in without trouble, indicating that we would have a good life together. We then walked to the Hall and she didn't trip when he reached the top, another good sign that the marriage would be a success. She served me the mead and said her vows of how she would serve me and all that. Hiccup slipped out early during the celebrations and I knew he was getting ready . _

_When the celebrations had stopped, it came to the final step of the marriage, the consummation of the bride and groom. We were walking to our house with the remaining guests behind us when we heard a noise coming from behind a bush. When we looked over we saw Hiccup strapping some supplies to Toothless and he was startled when he saw us. _

_"You're leaving?" Heather asked, and everyone behind us looked on with sadness and hoping he wouldn't. "Yeah, I'm leaving" he replied, sadness evident in his voice. "But why? You have a life here now" Treeroot said. He didn't want Hiccup, who had become more than a friend to Treeroot, he became family. "Don't get this the wrong way...but I won't be able to stand seeing Ripper and Heather together" he said looking at all of us. _

_They all looked at him confused but I knew why. "It's about _her_ isn't it?" I asked, and he nodded solemnly. "Then you understand why I have to do this right?" he asked getting onto Toothless. "I do...but that doesn't mean I won't hate you for doing that" I said with a slight smile. He also smiled. Toothless spread his wings and took off into the air that he was hovering above us. "Have a wonderful life you two" he said as he waved at all us. "Take care Hiccup...visit soon" I yelled as I had one hand wrapped around Heather's waist and the other one was waving. She was also waving him goodbye. And with a quick flap of his wings and a barrel roll Hiccup was flying off into the sunset that was cresting over the horizon. _

_We all stared for sometime, watching the black dragon and his rider fly off, before me and Heather went inside our house to start our new life...together...something that Hiccup won't feel for some time. _

_Hiccup's POV_

_"You know I can't stay there right bud" I asked him. "I know Hiccup, and don't worry...we'll always be with each other...friends till the end" he heard his dragon say to him. I took one last look at the island that had been my home for four years. It was my love for...her...that drove me away. I couldn't face it, and here I am running away again. This time, I'm going to go where no human can find me, and with a quick burst of speed, Toothless disappeared over the clouds, never to be seen again. _

_Present Time - Normal POV_

"So that's it...the last time any of us saw Hiccup" Ripper said. Everyone from Berk stared at disbelief. "What do you mean he left because of 'her'?" Ruff asked. Ripper didn't answer...he just looked at Astrid and she looked away when she did. "We've got to search for him" Gobber said. "Why should we, the weakling just ran again!" Snotlout yelled. "Yeah, he's not worth our trouble" Tuff said backing his friend up.

"You won't find him anyway" Ripper said, stopping the argument. "And why wouldn't we?" Astrid asked. "Because four months after he left, I went on Bladewing to search for him. I covered a 100 mile radius, asking villagers about him. They had stories about a young man coming on a Night Fury and helping them with their dragon problems and stories of him defeating the Outcasts in many battles. I followed up on all the leads but they led me nowhere...I spent three weeks searching for him until I convinced myself he didn't want to be found" he explained.

"But there has to be someway we can find him" Astrid said. Ripper and everyone else was surprised that she's the one who said it. Ripper then felt Bladewing nudge him. _"I think I know where he might be"_ he said. "Really where?" he asked. Everyone now looked at Ripper thinking he was crazy talking to a dragon...except for Heather and her father.

"Why are you talking to your pet?" Snotlout asked to which Bladewing made a false lunge at him making fall out of his seat. _"If he makes one more witty comment, I swear I'm going to rip limb from limb" _Bladewing said. "Calm down and don't care about that idiot" Ripper said looking at Snotlout taking his seat again._ "I remember the dragons that stopped over here a few days ago said they came from this land about 90 miles away in the mountains of the continent and said that there was a human living among them and he rode a Night Fury"_ Bladewing said. "What!? That's got to be him!" Ripper exclaimed standing up.

"What did your dragon tell you?" Fishlegs asked. "The possible location where Hiccup might be staying" he answered but then his face fell. "I can't go get him because of my work here" he said, sad that he couldn't go check on his friend. "Then we'll go" Astrid said.

_"That's not going to be possible. Tell the blonde one that the land is only accessible by dragons" _Bladewing said. "Yeah...one problem, the land is only accessible by dragons, and Bladewing just told me" Ripper said. Stoick, Gobber and Astrid's facial expression fell after he said that. "Well you have a dragon, can't you go and get him?" Astrid asked, in fact pleaded by the sound of her voice.

"For what so you can take him back to Berk and trial him...besides, I can't go get him...I'm needed here 24/7" Ripper said. If not for his work in the village, he would be up in the air now heading to the supposed place.

"We are not going to trial him, we just want to know if he's safe and alive" Gobber said. "Since when did you people care about his safety and well-being...and last time I remember, we're both branded as traitors to Berk" he said getting up now and Heather held his hand, trying to calm him. "Stoick, what do you want to do?" Treeroot asked. The final decision should be left with the father of the person after all.

"Astrid, I want you to go search for Hiccup and bring him back" he said. "What!?" all the teens yelled. "Why me?" she asked.

"Because you're the best tracker out of us all and we all can't travel by dragon there. We'll stay here until you come back with my son" Stoick said the last part rather softly. Guess it's been a while since he called Hiccup son. "There is no way I am going to ride a dragon" she said putting her hands up.

"That's good because Bladewing isn't going anywhere. He's also become a necessity in the village. We need him for muscle, he helps with the fishing and he deals with pests such as wild boars around here, so he's not going anywhere" Ripper answered. "Then how am I supposed to go near the place first?" Astrid asked. She wasn't going to swim all the way there. "One of my ships is heading on a trading meet to some of the villages to the east, the direction you want to go...they can take you aboard and drop you where you want to get off" Treeroot said. "What do you say Astrid?" Stoick asked. She could see the plead in his eyes...he really wanted to see Hiccup again...and in a way...so did she.

"Alright...I'll do it" she answered.


	8. I Found You

**A/N: I'd like to thank johnnylee619 for a scene in this chapter. Anyway, I know you've all been waiting for this chapter, so here it is and I hope you guys enjoy it. **

_The Next Day_

A ship was getting ready to depart the shores of Sharkslane. It was just a trade journey but it would be carrying an extra business to their farthest destination in the east. The previous day consisted of Ripper telling everyone about his and Hiccup's life ever since they found this place and when Hiccup left. Now they were out on a quest to get him back...the only catch was one of them was going to find him.

"Sorry for the extra passenger Algor, but this is a serious matter since it has to do with Hiccuo" Treeroot spoke with the capting of the ship that Astrid would be travelling on. "Don't mention it Treeroot, I'd be 'appy to help ya' find the boy" he said shaking the chief's hand and walking onto the deck of the ship. Treeroot turned back and looked to see the group of Hooligans arrive. They had to get an early start to the trip in hopes of finding him sooner.

They stopped just in front of the docks as Astrid made sure she had everything she needed. "Alright Astrid...remember the plan...look for any recent leads about Hiccup's whereabouts before heading to the place...just to make sure...and then bring him back to us. I don't care what it takes...find a way to bring him back" Stoick said, almost in a pleading voice that people rarely heard.

"I'm sorry chief but he can't do that" Ripper said. He had come see the ship off and give Astrid a few pointers on how she should counter Hiccup.

"And why not?" Stoick asked, not believing what Ripper was telling him.

"Look at us Stoick.." he said gesturing to himself and the teens behind him. "We're no longer kids and neither is he. He is an adult just like the rest of us. If he wants to come back...that's his choice...the only other way is kidnapping him". He turned his gazed to Astrid, to see that she was also listening to what he had to say, "And Astrid, this is just a warning to you, but be careful. You have done enough damage to Hiccup already, all of it emotional, and I highly doubt that even with your skill, you can find him at that place."

"Oh please, how hard is it to find that fishbone?!" asked Snotlout.

"First off...don't ever, _ever_, call him fishbone again...and second...Astrid, because you're going to get him back... you're different. Hiccup loved you and I still believe he does. He has matured so much and so have his skills, enough that it rivals yours...I know this for sure because me and Hiccup sparred a few times. Since I know him the best, I can tell you that if he wants to be found, he'll let you, but if he doesn't, he's testing to see if you can find him" he explained.

Ripper then walked up to Astrid, face to face, eye to eye; dead-lock, "That was my first warning and here is my second and you better listen good." The gaze in his eyes were terrifying, terrifying enough for Astrid Hofferson to listen, "By some luck, that you manage to screw things up again...hurt Hiccup, even more than he already is, then I swear to Oden that I will hunt you down for all the suffering you have caused him and I will make you _pay_," his voice was serious. His whisper was the most frightening promise that could ever be heard of. Astrid shook her head up and down as a nod, panicking on the inside.

"Good, now with that settled, it's time to go..." he said and gestured to the ship with his hand.

Astrid walked up to the gangplank but before she got on she looked at the others. "Don't worry chief, I'll bring Hiccup back" she said and got on board. An hour later, the ship was sailing to meet the rising sun in the east.

"I'll get you back Hiccup, one way or another" Astrid said as she leaned on the railing of the ship.

_Astrid's POV - 5 Days Later_

The captain of the ship told me they were reaching their final destination in their trading run before heading back to Sharkslane, and I guess this was the stop I get off at. The crew had been relatively nice to me, though some kept their distance from me and I saw the disappointed looks on their faces. Guess they heard the story of how Hiccup was treated in the past...and by all of us. This got me thinking, there were these Vikings, our neighbour and they accepted Hiccup's change and had become friends with the dragons. Why hadn't we accepted him? Was it just because of our past and our pride? Did we want him gone because he was...he was Hiccup the Useless? Was it because were afraid of change? I bet all them were reasons in their own way...and I would get them all out there when I find Hiccup.

Our destination was in sight. It was a small Viking settlement on the borders of the continent and one of the few I believe. "Alright Ms. Hofferson, this is where you'll be getting off" I heard the captain say. I looked back at the village...part one of my journey was done.

The ship docked within a few hours and I grabbed my stuff which was just basically my axe, some coins to buy anything I need and some food and water in my satchel. "Take care" I heard the captain say and gave him my thanks and went off into the village to get any clues on where Hiccup or this mysterious land was.

The village she was in was small. _"I think it's called The Last Frontier"_ I said to myself because this was the last village on the eastern side of Viking territory and beyond that...was the continent with more..._different_...communities. It was a small village so that meant it was tight-knit village which meant there was a greater chance at success about finding out about Hiccup. I saw they had an Inn and that's the place you normally go to hear rumours.

I opened the door to see tables with food on them, some rooms for people to sleep in and at the far end a counter with some Vikings sitting on the seats and drinking merrily. I saw the bartender and that was a good place to start as any.

"Mornin' lass...you new around here?" he asked while wiping the inside of a mug.

"Yeah...just arrived here today, I was wondering if you could help me with something" I asked.

"Sure thin'...so whadya' need?" he asked putting the mug and down and looking at me.

"I want to know if you know of...and this might sound crazy...someone riding a dragon?" I asked, hoping he didn't think I was crazy.

"Ah...you mean that fellow riding the Night Fury...yeah I've seen him...thought I'd gone crazy at first but when he landed and got off...by Thor was I amazed" he said, refilling a drink for another customer. When he said that I knew I hit gold.

"So does here live here?" I asked, my voice getting too excited. _"Wait, why am I getting excited? I'm just going and getting him back"_ I said to myself.

"No he doesn't, he jus' comes here to get food and drink and then he leaves on that Night Fury of his. From what I see, likes to keep to himself...not much of a talker" the man said.

_"Ok this is good. Now I know Hiccup comes here but how often?"..._"How often does he come here?" I asked.

"Every two weeks lass...and you jus' missed him. He came here yesterday" he said. _"I mentally cursed myself. Just by one day I missed him...OH the gods hate me"_ I said to myself while shaking my head.

"Did you see where he was heading?" I asked. The only objective now was to get as much detail about his whereabouts, then start the search.

"He heads into the mountains east of 'ere...but we can't go there cause it's only accessible by dragon" he said. _"Great, now where am I going to get a dragon?"_ This search just became a lot harder. "Thank you" I said before leaving.

I walked out of the Inn, and I saw a path that led directly into the mountains, but figured it only led so far before it ended at the base of the mountain in the distance. "Well here goes nothing" I said starting down the path into the thick forest.

_Night Time_

I had been hiking up the path all day...well the path ended probably about five hours ago and I just kept making my way through the forest to the base of the mountain. However it was getting too dark for me to continue so I set up a small camp, set up a fire and set some leaves on the ground for me to sleep in, and I dug into my meal which I packed. While I was eating I was thinking how much Hiccup might have changed. "He might have put on more muscle...no that won't be possible...he was too scrawny when he left to change _that_ much" I said aloud, not that there was anyone to hear me. "His facial appearance might have changed...again, maybe he's grown...but" I stopped as I realized if I did find him, what was I going to say.

It's been so long, and from what I remember...he hates all of us...for the way he was treated in Berk...he was treated as an Outcast. And that would have stuck with him all this time. There's no telling what he'll do if he sees me. I should be ready...for anything.

_Crack_. I stood up and immediately held my axe in my hands. "Who's there?" I held. I could hear the bushes rustling and I looked in the direction of where the noise came. "Show yourself!" I yelled as I held my axe up, ready to strike. That's when I saw three pairs of eyes open from the bush. They were small, round beady eyes with large pupils. I didn't know any animal that had eyes like those, well that I know of. I could tell they were moving about, even trying to push the other in front of the other. I looked back at the cooking fish on the spit above the fire. _"They must have been attracted by the food" _I thought. But then one of them fell out of the bush right in front of me and I couldn't believe my eyes.

"A baby dragon" I said aloud. It was blue in colour and had spiked coming from the back of its head. "A Deadly Nadder baby" I finished off. Then two of the other baby dragons came out and eyed the fish I had. But I knew this couldn't be good...if there were baby dragons around, the mother couldn't be far away. I still had my axe in my hand, in case something happened, but these were just babies...they were playing with each other right in front of me. I then realized they must have been attracted by the fish that I was cooking. I already had one, so I guess I really didn't need that one. I took it off the flames and threw it near the dragons, who immediately came at it and split it up for the three of them. I looked on as they fed themselves...and I had to admit...they looked extremely cute..._"Wait, what am I saying, they're dragons who'll grow up and end up killing me"_ I convinced myself. But I couldn't help myself stop smiling when I saw that they were rough-housing with each other. Any kind of baby...albeit dragon babies were cute.

I decided now would be a good time to get some rest, and as I was laying down I saw the dragons scamper off from where they came. At least I won't have problem with mama dragon...I soon closed my eyes for a nice peaceful sleep.

"_Squak!"_ I heard. I bet it had not been three minutes since I closed my eyes. I immediately shot up and I saw the three baby dragons run from the bush and up to me and hid behind my legs. When I looked up I saw why they ran...there were seven wolves right in front of me. I looked back to the dragons and I never saw any kind of dragon _this_ scared, they were trying to hide behind me. I looked back at the wolves and saw them advancing ever so closer. Since the dragons ran back here, I'd be next after them...so I took out my axe and got into a battle position.

The wolves stopped their advancing and sized me up. To them it was just more food, but I wouldn't be going down without a fight. I decided to make the first move. "Rah!" I yelled and charged them my axe ready to come down. They all scattered. One of them lunged at me but I ducked out of the way. A wolf ran at me but I quickly punched it in the face sending it to the ground. I then saw two wolves cornering the baby dragons. I don't know what I felt, but I had to protect those dragons, so I threw my axe at the wolves, one of it hitting the wolf right in the side. It howled in pain as it went down. I charged to the wolf and grabbed my axe from its side and got in front of the dragons. One down, six to go, but I knew it was only a matter of time before...

The wolves scattered as a blast of fire came their way. I looked up to see a blue Deadly Nadder land and start attacking the wolves. It unleashed the spikes in its tails at the wolves, hitting three of them in their paws and it shot another blast of fire at them. The wolves knew they couldn't take on a fully grown dragon and ran off into the woods. The dragon let out one final roar at them before folding its wings and looking at me. The baby dragons rushed from behind me and up to the dragon. The Deadly Nadder crooned its head down and nuzzled its babies. "I guess that's the mama dragon" I said as I watched the reunion. The mother dragon then looked up and at me and moved towards me. I knew if I attacked it, I wouldn't stand a chance, and there wouldn't be a point in running now because it would catch me.

It was now right in front of me and it was looking at my axe. I remember Ripper telling me that dragons don't like it when people are holding weapons, it just makes them nervous as we are without weapons. So I looked down at my axe then back at the dragon. "I can't believe I'm doing this" I said and I dropped my axe on the ground and kicked it away from me. The dragon looked at the axe that was kicked away then back at me, but I noticed the change in its eyes. It changed from dilated pupils to normal. I guess it doesn't see me as a threat anymore.

Then as if on instinct, I stuck my hand out, something I saw Ripper do with the Nightmare in the ring five years ago. The dragon looked at my hand before putting its head near it. I was so scared about what might happen that I closed my eyes and then...I felt the scales on my palm. When I opened my eyes I saw the dragon had his snout placed against my arm. Then it began making a shrill noise and nuzzled against my hand. "So this is what it feels like" I said. I hadn't felt something like this in a long time. It was like a bond had been formed when we touched each other. I then saw the baby Nadders run up to me and also wanted my attention, and I reached down and petted them. It felt so strange yet so good touching them. I had never been so close to dragons in this way.

I then remembered my task at hand. I was supposed to get Hiccup back and the only way to reach the land he was in was by dragon. I looked at the Nadder that was looking at me and then at the mountain behind me. "Looks like I found my dragon" I said as I let the dragon nuzzle me more...and to my surprise I liked it...getting attention from her. "You know what...I think I like you two" I said rubbing her chin...something that I saw Ripper do with his dragon. That's when my mind clicked and I had to get back on the mission.

"I might understand me...but I need to get over that mountain to find someone" I said pointing to the mountain. The dragon looked up and squaked. I think it knew what I wanted or who I wanted to see. She knelt down so I could get on her. I then heard her hatchlings making noises as well. I couldn't leave them alone, not with those wolves still in the area, and I bet neither did their mother. So I gathered up the baby dragons and placed them in front of me so I could keep an eye on them. After we got settled on the dragon's back, she took off.

The rush of the wind was so sudden and being on the back of a dragon...it's something that people never experience, and riding on one, looking at the world below you...you feel alone...it feels calm, like you're the only one in the world up here, and that was exactly how Hiccup felt. I realized it now. He risked his life for Toothless because he was the only living being, other than Ripper who accepted him...with his flaws and all...but he accepted him and became his friend. Now I was determined to get to Hiccup and apologize for _everything_ that I had done to him.

Flying on a dragon was how could I put it?...Incredible, Breathtaking, Fast...there are so many words but I can't find the words to describe it. It's like you know what the feeling is, but there's nothing to explain about it. The dragon took me high above now that I could see the village lights in the distance and it didn't take long for us to cross over the mountain. Beyond that was just forest and I didn't know where to begin, but the dragon kept flying in a path...I think she knows I want to see Hiccup and she probably knows where he is.

It didn't take long for the dragon to start descending again. She had probably been in the air for ten or fifteen minutes before she began slowing down. At first the sudden change in speed and sudden drop knocked the air out of me and not going to lie, did scare at me first, but now we were nearing the ground. She soon landed and I got off, rubbing her neck and thanking her for the trip. She then pointed her head in the direction and nudged me forward. I looked back at the dragon and she again gestured her head in the direction she wanted me to go...almost as if she knew where Hiccup was.

I looked in the direction she wanted me to go and this was a first...I was going to follow a dragon's order. Since I didn't know anywhere to go, I figured the dragon knew better and so I went in that direction. I turned around for a moment to see that the dragon was walking off with her hatchlings behind her. I looked back ahead of me and continued on.

I was walking for about thirty minutes before I reached a narrow gorge and the path led directly through it. I looked on both sides at the top to make sure there wasn't anything bad waiting and I continued on. When I reached the end, the sight before me took my breath away. It was like the Cove back on Berk, but much, much bigger...and in the middle I saw a large mansion, with smoke coming from the chimney indicating someone was home and I only saw one light through a window.

"I guess I found you Hiccup" I said, proud that I had accomplished my goal.

"Yes you did" I heard a voice say and then...blackness.


	9. Reunion

**A/N: Oh yeah, just to get this out there, the characters look just like the trailer for HTTYD 2. Or check for the images in Google.**

_Astrid's POV_

I opened my eyes slowly, finding myself in a room large room with pillars on each side holding up the floor above me, and I saw a fireplace to my right, with a fire burning and a pot above it. I also saw a stove that was made from gathering some rocks together and a place in the middle for a fire to be made. I looked ahead of me and saw the only door to this room and it was open, but I didn't see anything past the darkness. A few candles were lit, but other than that and the fire, there was not much light. I tried to move but realized my hands were tied and behind my and I was kneeling on my knees, so getting up was out of the question.

"Finally awake ya'?" I heard someone say and it sounded like it came from the door.

"Hiccup?" I asked...and when the figure walked out of the shadows, I couldn't believe my eyes...it was _him_.

_Normal POV_

"Long time no see Astrid" he said, her name running off his tongue like some spoiled fish. Astrid looked at the young man in front of her. She could tell by his green emerald eyes he was Hiccup...but his body made her doubtful. There stood a young man, with auburn hair that reached his neck, dressed in similar clothing when he lived on Berk, but by the outline the clothing portrayed, he had gained muscle...not a lot but it was well defined. His face had also grown, it still had a soft complexion, no real facial hair, but boy did he change. His freckles were gone, his jaw-line was set and Astrid saw something that she never saw...anger...in his eyes.

"How did you know I was coming?" she asked.

"Please, compare a five year veteran in dragon flying to some novice. I saw you flying on that Nadder here...and before you ask, you couldn't see me because Toothless is silent and fast, plus he blends in with the night" he said. "Now since I have answered your question, answer mine...Why have you come?" he asked, in a pleasant voice but she could tell that he was hiding the anger behind it. He grabbed a chair and placed it right in front of her and sat down on it, smiling as if this was another friendly meeting.

"I c-came to...bring you back" she answered. She was in uncharted waters and she knew it...and she didn't want to anger him...more.

"Bring me back to the home that shunned me for years...back to the father who didn't give a crap about his son...back to the life that you all put me in?" he phrased it in a question. He was trying desperately to hold in his anger, but by her appearing now...it all came back in one wave.

"No, Hiccup I came to..." she couldn't finish her sentence as Hiccup lunged at her and had his hand around her throat. That smile was now changing into a scowl as he tightened his grip on her throat.

"What was that? I didn't quite get you" he said, mocking her right then and there. Astrid knew she couldn't get angry. He had every right to be doing this to her. He loosened his grip on her throat just a bit to let her speak.

"I came to say sorry...I" she was stopped when he tightened his grip again.

"Sorry? SORRY!?" he screamed and pushed her back that she fell on her side. Astrid looked up to see him standing over her...and in all her nineteen years, she had never felt more scared than this situation.

"Why are you sorry huh? In fact why should you be sorry? All you've done is watch while Snotlout and the twins made fun of me, beat me up, and not paid any attention to me...all you did was rat me out after I told you to listen. WHAT ARE YOU SORRY FOR!?" he yelled. His hands were curled up into fists, ready to hit something...or someone. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"I thought you were different Astrid..." he said in a calm voice. "I thought you weren't one of..._them_" he spat. She knew 'them' were the people of Berk he was referring to. "But it turns out you're the same like everyone else is on that pathetic rock. You don't accept change even when it keeps knocking on the door, begging you to let it in. I thought you of all people would understand me...where I was going with the idea of having Toothless. I thought you would understand because unlike the others...you listen...at least that's what I thought" he continued. He was now walking around the room while Astrid never took his eyes off him. She was taken aback at his outburst but she had calmed down a bit to hear him out.

"Instead of listening...you went through that narrow-minded train of thought that they had bestowed on you. You didn't hear what I had to say and you ratted me out. Because of you I was branded as a traitor to Berk...I was already an Outcast back home, you just made me leave...(sigh)...but it was a good thing I did because if it wasn't for you...I wouldn't have been able to change the way of the people of Sharkslane. I know you stopped there and look at how perfectly happy they are now that they understand dragons! If I didn't leave Berk...I would not have found...a _happy_ life" he said staring at her coldly.

"But I knew Ripper was falling for Heather, and she for him...it was only a matter of time before...I left because _you_ reminded me of the person I loved!" he yelled at her, a tear running down his eye. She was also struggling to hold back tears. He was telling her what he had felt for all those years and the effect it had on him...the effect _she_ had on him.

"I always loved you Astrid...I would always stare at you when we walked by, seeing you smile...it always brightened my day...but that's in the past, as are all of my unhappy memories...This is now...and that Hiccup is gone" he said. He reached for a glove on the shelf above the fireplace and put it on.

"Hiccup...I'm sorry I wasn't there...I'm sorry you left...I know it's because of me...and I want to make things right...They told me to come find you because I was the best tracker...but I _wanted_ to find you...so I can tell you myself how sorry I am...sorry for the things I didn't do when you were being bullied...sorry for not acknowledging you...sorry for not caring!" she said, tears running down her face, and he saw it. She didn't care if he saw it.

Hiccup heard every word she said as he took his time putting on his modified glove. "Why should I believe you?" he asked turning around. "You said you were sent here to bring me back? How do I know you're not just going to trial me for my crimes?" he said, putting emphasis on crimes. He walked up to her and slowly picked her up and helped her onto her feet.

"We are not...your father said he just wants you back" she said as he turned her to face him.

"Really, he's started calling me son now?" he asked, making fun of Stoick.

"No he's..." before Astrid could make her point he cut her off. "He made it perfectly clear that I was no Viking. He wanted a different son and everyone knows that. Not this fishbone! as you all called me" he said as he went behind to cut her ropes. "He never felt any affection towards me...no matter how many times I tried to prove myself, he still didn't care" he said as he cut her ropes and now her arms were free.

Astrid clutched both her wrists, rubbing the marks of the rope away. "What are you doing?" she asked as he tossed a dagger at her and she caught it no problem.

"I know you're here to bring me back...but I know there's going to be a trial and the punishment is death for me...so here you go Astrid...kill me" he said, no emotion on his face.

Astrid stared at him in disbelief. He just told her to kill him and he was removing his bear skin coat that he had over him, leaving on his pale green shirt...and a glove on his hand? But Astrid looked closer and saw that it was a glove made from scales and it had a compartment on top of it that could only hold...

Her suspicions were confirmed when Hiccup moved his hand a bit and a black blade fell out. "You Astrid Hofferson can do what your village law demands...to kill me for treason...but I'm not going down without a fight" he said and got in a fighting stance. Astrid looked at the dagger he gave her and then back to him. "Hiccup, I won't fight you" she said dropping the dagger onto the ground.

"Well that'll make things easier" he said with a smile and lunged at her.

Astrid quickly side-stepped out of the way but Hiccup anticipated this and used one of his legs to trip her, and she fell right on her back on the hard floor. "Come on Astrid, I thought you'd be more of a challenge" he mocked her. She couldn't believe how quick he was...now she knew why Ripper said to be careful with him. She quickly got up and regained her fighting stance. Hiccup had retracted the blade and raised his fists and charged her again. She raised both her arms to block his punch and quickly moved them to block a kick that was going straight to her stomach.

"You're good.." he said as he grabbed one of her hands and put his left foot behind her right foot. "But not good enough" he said as he pulled her right foot off the ground with his left and pushed her hard onto the floor and was now on top of her. She breathed heavily as she a look in his eyes that she never saw before...he actually had the intention of killing her then and there.

His blade came out again and he pressed it against the side of her neck. "Please Hiccup, this isn't you" she said. She was helpless now. He was directly over her with his back legs pressing her legs together so she couldn't move them and his one hand pinned both of hers. "No it isn't me...it's what you _Vikings_ made me" he said with a snarl.

"Any last words Astrid?" he asked, the blade pressing ever so into the skin of her neck. Astrid knew the damage was done...she didn't know it was this extensive. All the rage he kept inside him was coming out now and she was bearing the brunt of it. There was no way out of it, he wanted revenge and she understood, she would also do the exact same thing in his shoes.

"I deserve it for the pain I caused" she said looking up to his eyes and letting one final tear run down her cheek. Hiccup felt a pang of guilt now, but that was over shadowed by his hatred for her...and he raised his arm, and was about to bring the blade down to end this...she closed her eyes, waiting to feel the cold blade enter her throat.

_"Hiccup!"_ he heard someone yell and he looked to see Toothless bounding over. _"This is not you Hiccup...don't do this!"_ he tried to reason with him. Astrid opened her eyes to see the Night Fury she saw all those years ago. To her it looked like Toothless was talking to him.

Hiccup looked back to Astrid and she looked at him, unsure of what he was going to do. "It's because of her Toothless...it's her fault we're here!" he yelled not letting go of his grip.

_"Yes it is...but Hiccup, we chose to run, we managed to build a new life...and this will be a dark path if you choose...you won't be wanted for treason...you'll be wanted for murder Hiccup...don't do this. Besides when will you forgive and forget?" _he asked him.

"I had already forgotten...until she came here, but I'll never forgive" he said and got up, releasing her limbs. Astrid took in deep breaths, recovering from facing Hiccup's anger. He looked at her and she saw the hurt in his eyes...the hurt from betrayal..._her_ betrayal to him.

"How many Vikings died in the raids?" he asked all of a sudden. She knew instantly where he was getting at...what would have happened if she stayed and listened. She began crying, knowing how many Vikings had died ever since he had left. Hiccup looked at her, knowing the answer from her crying..."If only you listened instead of acting" he said and walked out leaving her in her mess.

She knew he was right...if only she stayed and listened instead of running...there was no going back now. But she did have a chance to make up with him and she was determined not to let that pass. She wiped away the tears and got up to go after him but was blocked by Toothless.

"I need to go see him!" she said trying to get past the dragon.

But Toothless nudged her away from the door, trying to tell her that Hiccup needed some time alone. At first she refused to listen to the dragon's repeated croons and moans but when she stopped and looked at him, she realized that he was trying to tell her to wait.

She looked back at the door Hiccup left through and back to the dragon. "Please...Toothless is it?...I have to talk to him...it's all my fault...and I need to make things right with him...I don't care how long it will take, but I can't fail now...not when I failed him so many times before" she said, unknowingly petting Toothless' snout. Toothless' years perked up, and he moved away, leaving her room to go through that door to get Hiccup.

She knew it wasn't going to be easy, but she had to try...because he was the key to end everything...for the village...and for _her_.


	10. I'm Sorry

**A/N: This chapter is not as long as the others, but it is also emotional like the previous one, and I'm really happy with how successful this story is doing. Thank you to all the readers and reviews you are leaving. Enjoy!**

_Hiccup's POV_

"How dare she!?" I said as I walked outside of the house I built. I knew Toothless would keep her from following me and now I just needed time to cool off. She comes all this way trying to bring me back to Berk, and say that _she's_ sorry?! It's going to take more than sorry to convince me to come back. I looked around for a place to clear my thoughts. The reason I chose this place was because it was secluded and that it was only accessible by dragons. I had come here one year ago and I made my house from the trees I cut down in this place. During the day, it was pure beauty. I could see dragons flying about in the day and I got study them, fly with Toothless and all my problems were far away from here.

I wanted minimal human contact, so I only went once every two weeks to that village on the other side for supplies. Life had been going great...until she found me. Does she think I just forgot my past? The past is what shapes a person...and it is always a mistake to never look back in the past to learn from your mistakes. And my past was full torment, ridicule, shame, disappointment...and so much more. That is what keeps me from leaving this place...my past. I guess I never knew your past catches up with you...no matter for long you run from it. And now, it's caught up...but did it have to send _her_?

I mean send Fishlegs, the Twins, or _even_ Snotlout...but her? I guess trouble always follows me about. I hiked to my special place. It was a small version of the cove back on Berk, except this one had a pathway down to it. It had a big pond in the middle with a stream continuously pouring water into it. There was a small cliff above it where you could jump in and yes it was safe because the pond was also deep. Just before the pond, there was a huge slab of flat rock. That was where I usually sit when I want to think...and I had a lot to think about right now.

Was she telling the truth...about her being sorry? Or was it all just an act to get me back. But I have to admit, I never saw her cry, and I know crying for her is not a thing...so for her to cry when I went berserk on her...that must mean she is sorry...or she was scared out of her wits. But that doesn't excuse what she's done or failed to do when I was on Berk. But something didn't seem right. My mind just kept nagging at me.

_"You went too hard on her...she came to take you back"_ my conscious said.

_"Yeah, just to trial and kill you if you do return...besides you wouldn't even be in this position if it wasn't for _her_"_ my anger said. I was really having a debate on if I should forgive her or not...actually not that...if I could trust her at all.

His feelings for the girl were coming back and he started to feel guilt for putting her through all his anger. "I can't let me feelings get the better of me...I can't let her off that easy" I said to no one in particular. But as I was thinking about her...I began to look at how much she changed. She had grown up a lot. Her body was still the same shape five years before but her curves were more defined, she had more womanly traits, her hair had grown longer and she still kept it in that braid. She still wore that headband of hers...she hasn't changed much. Other than that, she was still the same...same brash, fiery, spirited...beautiful Astrid.

I chuckled to myself when I said beautiful. _"Some things never change"_ I told myself.

_"Crack"_ I heard a noise behind me and I knew instantly who it was. "You're never going to leave me alone are you?" I asked not bothering to turn around to see her, but looked up into the night sky instead.

"Hiccup...I" I cut her off .

"No Astrid...I should say sorry for going berserk on you. I should have had control over my emotions get the better of me" I said looking around to see her, with her arms folded in front of the other, and I saw her tear stained face which made my guilt pit dig itself deeper.

"No Hiccup...you had and have every right to be angry...with Berk...with your father...with _me_. I know I can't get those years back...years that could've...no, would've changed the people of Berk for the better...but I will try to make it up to you" she said as she started walking closer to me.

"I know why you saved Toothless, I felt that same feeling when I connected with a mother dragon before flying here. I now know what you were trying to get at...and it hurts me now that...I ran to tell Stoick...I was so foolish, I shouldn't have. Now I think about what would have happened if I didn't run...the life you could have led us to. But also..." that's when I saw the tears coming down her eyes.

"Ripper told me how you felt in Berk when he was about to be trialed...and I couldn't believe that we did that to you...that _I_ did that to you. I should have said something, I should have stood up for you...not make you feel less loved...but...I-I...was too scared on how they would start treating me..." she said. I was shocked to hear that, but part of me expected it and she continued on.

"You think they did the worst things...but in truth I did...I wasn't there for you...I was too afraid to stand up for you because I was worried on how they would start...t-treating me...and as a result this is where you've turned up...and it probably was the best you left Berk...because it allowed you to _find_ yourself...unlike the rest of us...who are still suffering because of the raids...still caught in the loophole, while you..._you_ escaped a long time ago..." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I never heard Astrid talk like this, and with tears coming down her face at an alarming rate...she couldn't be faking this whole thing...she _truly_ was sorry.

"I could have done something to help you all those years ago...and prevented so much death..." she said and that was the hitting point. She fell down on both knees and began crying, not like in the house, but this crying...she blamed herself for everything that had happened. She feels that she could have done something and as a result she is paying for not going through that thought. She realizes her mistake and has admitted it...I guess it is time for me to forgive her.

I got up and walked to her. She didn't look up as she had her face buried in her hands...but she needed someone...someone who understands her. I knelt down on one knee and wrapped my arms around her. She immediately cramped into my chest area and cried more. This Astrid was definitely not the one I knew five years ago...this Astrid was the one I was waiting for.

I had one arm wrapped around her and I put one hand on the back of her head and held her tightly to my chest and I could feel her tears staining my shirt and I felt her quick breathing. "I'm sorry Hiccup...I'm sorry" she said while clasping my shirt with both her hands, and I just held her tighter, bringing her in closer. I did that because the way she was acting...it was how I was on the inside all those years ago...sad that I couldn't be what the village wanted me to be...sad that I would never be what my father wanted me to be. Just like when I didn't kill Toothless, I saw myself...weak, helpless and scared I was...she was the exact same way now. She realized the mistake she made...and now wanted to be forgiven...something I never got the chance when Berk didn't accept me...but by choosing the action they did, I would be just like them.

"I forgive you" I said as I kissed her hair and rubbed her back. She was starting to calm down, I could tell as she started taking deeper breaths and her crying had stopped. I cupped her chin and looked her in the eyes, they were red and tired from all the crying, but she managed a small smile.

"Thank you...thank you" she said as she hugged me and I hugged her back.

"You won't mention this to anyone will you?" she asked, still sniffling a bit. Good ole' Astrid...was back to her normal self.

"What happens in the Cove...stays in the Cove" I said as he looked into her eyes and wiped away a tear.

She smiled, thankful that I understood. That's what I do, I understand people. "You must be tired from the trip...and all that's just happened right?" I asked as I helped her up.

"Yes...I could really use some shut-eye" she said as she rubbed a few dry spots away.

"Come on" I said as I held her hand and led her back to the mansion. The walk was quiet as she began to feel sleepy with every step, but we were in the mansion in no time and I led her to the room I sleep in. By then she was nearly asleep so I laid her on the bed and removed her boots. I slipped her under the covers and by then she was fast asleep. I had to admit I was also incredibly tired. Toothless walked up to me and stared at Astrid who was now sleeping soundly.

_"I see everything went smoothly"_ he said.

"She finally understands Toothless...and I'm glad she does" I said as I walked away and sat on a chair and began removing the glove that I still had on.

_"So I take it you're going to mate her soon?"_ he asked and I stared at him. _"What, it's obvious that you have feelings for her still and she has for you...just like Heather and Ripper had"_ he said and I still couldn't believe he said that.

"First off, we just made up, we're not going to..._mate_...as you put it, and besides she doesn't like me in that way" I said setting some furs on the ground for me to sleep on.

_"I don't know why you humans are so blind to emotions"_ he said as he curled up and around me and put his wing over me as a cover.

"And I don't know why it's your business to say if we're mates or not" I said and soon followed Astrid to the subconscious.


	11. I'm Asking

**A/N: This chapter is not as long as the others, but it is also emotional like the previous one, and I'm really happy with how successful this story is doing. Thank you to all the readers and reviews you are leaving. Enjoy!**

_Normal POV_

Astrid slowly opened her eyes from her deep sleep. She raised her upper body to look around, making sure she remembered where she was. She found herself in a bed, with the covers drawn over her and her boots at the edge of the bed. The early morning rays peaked through the two windows of the room they were in, signalling a new day...and in her mind...the start to a new life with Hiccup...in treating him the way he should have been. She heard clearly that he said he forgave her...but that wasn't enough for Astrid. No living being on Midgard could forgive another so easily after all the suffering he was put through.

_"I have to earn his forgiveness"_ she thought. She looked to the edge of the room to see Toothless looking at her with his big green eyes and she saw he had one of his wings folded around Hiccup to keep him warm.

_"How could a Viking and a dragon have such close a bond?"_ she thought as she sat herself at the edge of the bed and began to put her boots on. She noticed that Toothless hadn't taken his eyes off her yet. That's when she noticed it. He wasn't staring at her in curiosity...his stare was that of skepticism. She could tell...even though she couldn't believe that she could now read a dragon's facial expressions...that he was unsure of her. Sure Hiccup had forgiven her...to a certain extent...but Toothless wouldn't be so easily swayed. This was the girl who exposed him and Hiccup...it was obvious to him as the way Hiccup reacted over her every time they looked back on how they got here...she was the reason he left his new found life in Sharkslane Village. She was the cause of many problems to Hiccup, and as a loyal dragon and friend...he didn't want Hiccup to get hurt again...not by the same girl.

Toothless felt Hiccup begin to stir and he carefully removed his wing to see Hiccup open his eyes and squint at the light that was entering the room. "It's too early bud" he said grabbing the wing tip and getting comfy underneath it again.

_"Do you want me to light your head on fire again?"_ Toothless asked with a smirk. Hiccup's eyes shot open and he pushed the wing off him and sat up, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of his eyes.

"Jeez...I guess you're a morning dragon" Hiccup said as he stretched the stiffness in his back and his arms...and his whole body.

_"And so is your mate"_ he said and gestured to where Astrid was who had been watching the whole scene in front of her in bewilderment. Hiccup blushed a bit when he said. "You're never going to let me hear the end of it are you?" he asked, showing his toothy smile.

_"You know me so well Hiccup"_ Toothless commented with a snort.

Astrid couldn't believe what was happening..._"Is Hiccup actually...speaking...with his dragon?"_ she thought. She was still seated on her bed just watching the two of them.

_"You have to tell her you understand me because I think she'll think you're more crazy than usual"_ he said gesturing to Astrid with his head. Hiccup turned his head to see Astrid looking at them, wanting to know what was going on.

"You want to know if I understand Toothless right?" he asked, and she nodded in response. "Well...where do I begin" he said rubbing the back of his head. "I think it began happening three or four years ago on Sharkslane, where I began to hear these voices in my head. At first I thought I was going crazy...as these voices always seemed to be listening in on my conversations and responding to them...until the voice said who he was and that's when I realized me and Toothless had built a connection" he explained.

"He said that he always understood Norse...so he basically understood us. He said that since me and Ripper spent so much time with him and Bladewing, we began to pick up their own language little by little without even knowing it. We called it...Dragonese...and we've been talking with them ever since" he finished. Hiccup watch Astrid as she tried to process this information. It was a long shot...just dumping something like that on a person who's just started to understand dragons is a lot.

"You're telling me that dragons can understand us and you can talk with them?" she asked. It sounded really crazy coming out of her mouth.

"Basically yes" Hiccup answered.

"I don't believe you...I mean yeah dragons are different, but talking with them...I mean come on" she said getting up and walking to where Hiccup and Toothless were.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but believe me...it's true...you can test it if you want to" he said. "How am I going to test it...I can't talk to dragons...even if you can...which I still think is a bit out there" she said. Hiccup looked at Toothless and asked him if he was ok with this and he nodded.

"Toothless said you can tell him something and he'll tell that to me, and if I get it right, that proves I can talk to dragons" Hiccup said waving Toothless to Astrid for the test to begin and he lumbered over to the bed where she was.

"You really expect this to work huh?" she asked with a smirk, and Hiccup's response was just a shrug of his shoulders and a small smile. "Alright...I'll tell him something that you could never guess" she said and proceeded to whisper in the dragon's year...and just like that she was done and sat up and folded her arms with a victory smirk on her face.

"Alright Toothless...what did she tell you?" he asked, wanting to hear the secret. Toothless looked at Astrid for a split second and then back at me.

_"She said she thinks you're HOT!"_ he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You think I'm hot?" Hiccup asked looking at Astrid with a confused expression. Astrid immediately blushed a deep red that would make a tomato jealous.

"I DID NOT SAY THAT!" she said covering her mouth and looking even more embarrassed. Hiccup looked back at Toothless who was snickering at the two humans in front of him. "Toothless, enough with the jokes already!" Hiccup said, smiling a bit at what Toothless did.

_"Couldn't help myself...it's always funny to see you human's facial expressions. She said that she wished she didn't have to kill dragons...and always wished to have a dragon as a pet"_ he said. Hiccup couldn't believe what he heard. The Astrid Hofferson who was so keen on becoming a full fledged warrior and dragon killer wanted to have a dragon as her friend?

"You wanted to have a dragon as a pet and you never really wanted to kill dragons" he said and saw Astrid nod her head. She had her mouth I bit open when he said that.

"So it looks like you really can talk to dragons" she said with a small smile, impressed by his new skill.

"Well me and Ripper anyway. I bet you were confused when you saw him talking to his dragon right?" he asked. "Wait, how did you know that we saw that?" she asked. Hiccup hadn't been there when they were Sharkslane so how could he have known.

"It was bound to happen. Ripper can also talk to dragons although he doesn't let it on, and most people back there know that we can. That's why they aren't surprised when we talked to dragons" Hiccup explained. Astrid thought that it was pretty cool at how he could talk to dragons...she was in fact amazed at how much he had accomplished over the years.

"Other than learning how to speak...Dragonese...what did you do all these years?" she asked. It was still early in the day as only now the sun's rays were brightly shining through the window. Might as well catch up on past years.

"Well...I can't say I did a lot" he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Really, because that was the first time that anyone beat me in hand-to-hand combat" she said. Although it was a memory that both of them wanted to forget, it had to be brought up some time because Astrid saw his true fighting skills come out.

"Oh yeah, that...well Ripper said that I had to learn how to fight in case I got separated from Toothless. I wasn't into it at first...but he kept insisting and he even got Treeroot's help in convincing me to take up lessons. When that didn't work he kept taking Toothless away from me for a whole week before I finally said yes" Hiccup said with a laugh at the end, to which Astrid also giggled a bit.

"Treeroot and Ripper trained me non stop for about two months, always getting me up at the crack of dawn and if I didn't get up they'd just throw a bucket of fish on me and not allow me to take a wash for the rest of the day. I didn't believe them at first...until they actually did it of course...and that's basically about it" he explained.

"So you didn't go travelling about, exploring the world?" she asked getting up from bed and going to a mirror to make sure her hair wasn't messy or so.

"The only travelling I did was for a place away from any settlements...so I could keep to myself and..." he stopped because he didn't want to go further as the main reason was to get away from it all and not having to go through the same pain again.

"So you could forget your past right?" Astrid asked without turning her back. Her own expression gloomed a bit as she remembered why he left.

"Yeah...but I guess no matter how long you run from your past, it always catches up with you doesn't it?" he asked getting up and walking to the stove. Astrid heard by the tone of his voice he still held his past close to him. She frowned as well, thinking about the memories, if they could be called that. He might have told her that he'd forgiven her, but she knew he was still hurting on the inside. He didn't show it and he was a master at it, but she could sense that he was still angry at Berk, his friends...his father.

"A past that wants you to give it another chance" she said solemnly. She turned around and looked him in the eyes, "We...I know that Berk doesn't deserve you Hiccup, from what I have experienced you're definitely better off...but you are the only person who could help us end this war once and for all" she said. Hiccup looked at her for about half a minute.

"And why should I Astrid? For my whole life I was shunned, teased, beaten up just because of how I was. No one excepted me for who I was...(looks away to the window)...they all wanted me gone..._you_ wanted me gone" he said turning back to Astrid who glanced away not meeting his eyes. She was afraid that she'd see the hurt in his eyes again.

"I never fitted in Berk...I was an Outcast among my own people...no one wanted anything to do with me and befriending Toothless just gave them the excuse they needed to get rid of me. My own father doesn't even care about me. After mom died, he just didn't know what to do with a fishbone like me. Mom was probably the only person on Berk who understood me...accepted me for me...and always told me not to care what others say about me...that I'm special in my own way...and when she died, the only person who ever _truly_ loved me was gone...I was alone again and had been. Ripper was the next person who accepted me, became my friend...I don't know if he felt sorry for me or what, and I don't care, but Ripper never really did understand how I _really_ felt...not like Toothless" he said looking at his scaly friend who was also listening in on the conversation.

"Look at his tailfin" he said and Astrid looked to Toothless' tail and saw one natural tailfin, and a brown leather tailfin. "I shot him down that night" he said, and she looked back at him again. "No one believed me...as usual, so I went to the forest, I searched for hours until I found his trail. He was tied up in the net I shot at him and he was there on the ground. I told myself I would cut out his heart and bring it to my dad, proof that I was a Viking, that I can be what he wanted me to be...but I looked at Toothless, and saw something I never saw in anyone else...he was scared, helpless, waiting for the world to take his life...(sigh)...I saw myself" he said looking at the fireplace under the stove.

"I cut him loose...turned out Ripper had followed me there and saw _everything_. He didn't understand at first but said he'd keep it all a secret, and I studied Toothless who was trapped in the Cove...because when I shot him down, I injured him, ripping his tailfin off...so I made him a new one and became his rider and we've had each other's backs ever since" he explained, finally looking up to Astrid whose expression was unreadable right now.

She looked at Toothless and for the first time she saw something more than a beast...she saw a friend, "Toothless was more family to you than any of us had ever been. He accepted you, treated you with the respect you deserved, cared for you...I think Toothless if more human than any of us back at Berk" she started looking back to Hiccup who had started a fire and was preparing to cook something.

"But just like Toothless earned your trust...let us earn your trust again Hiccup...we _need_ you, Ripper won't come if you don't, and we're running out of options. The raids are becoming more frequent and violent on account for both sides...and _I_ know that you're the only one who can help us" she pleaded with him. Hiccup looked at her and glanced to him, and he warbled something at him and Hiccup's eyes narrowed at this and he looked back at Astrid with disappointment.

"You killed a dragon didn't you?" he asked, and this caught her completely off guard. Before she had a chance to ask, "Toothless read it all over you...he said you have that _feel_ around you...or maybe he peered into your mind, dragons can do that...read thoughts" he said and Astrid looked to Toothless to see him with an emotionless face, definitely from finding the fact that she had killed a dragon.

"Hiccup...that was a long time ago...I had no choice, the dragon was coming right at me...if I didn't kill it, I wouldn't be here" she said, trying to move from this but then she saw Hiccup chuckle.

"How much did they celebrate your feat? How much blood was spilt when they cut that dragon up...did they hang the head up in the Hall for your accomplishment? More importantly...how did you _feel_ after killing that dragon?" he asked standing right in her face now. Astrid was now backed up against a wall, she knew there would be no point in lying, so better come out with the truth now.

"(sigh) I felt pride for killing the dragon...I felt that I had accomplished what a shield-maiden does at such a young age. I looked up with pride at the head of that dragon over in the Hall, knowing that I had taken its life...I was finally..." she stopped when she realized what she had become.

"You were finally a _Viking_" he spat the word with extreme hatred and turned around. "Tell me, why should I trust any of you now, you're all Vikings, made for killing and nothing else" he said going back to his cooking. Astrid looked at him...he made his point, why would he help them? All they did was celebrate when he left and after that they just forgot him, wanted nothing to do with him...even when he was there. They all saw him as a curse, a misfit, an outcast...she realized that he had _perfect_ reasons for not helping them.

"You're right, we don't deserve your help...not after what we did to you. It's not fair for you in any way" she said turning around. She had her eyes on the door that led outside. "I know I didn't do anything to help you, but I want to change that now, if you are willing to accept me. And they're not asking you Hiccup..._I_ am" she said and walked out the door, going gods know where.

Hiccup sighed and looked through the door she left and back to Toothless. "What do you think bud? Is it time to leave the past behind?" he asked.

_"I'm with you whatever decision you make Hiccup, you know that...but can we really be sure. You know as well as I do that no one on Berk wants to see you again, and you're just going to go back like that?"_ he asked.

"No I'm not...but I just don't know what to do...my mind is plagued my so many thoughts and emotions right now it's hard to..."

_Scream!_

"Astrid?" he said and ran out the same door.


	12. Day Off

**A/N: This chapter is of the guys back in Sharkslane about 4 days after Astrid left. This chapter is about them, so enjoy! AND this message is for that guest Mohamed, I have school, I'm in grade 12, I'm doing IB (look it up if you don't know), I have other stories as well. I don't get a lot of time here because I have extra curricular activities after school as well; I have not given up on this story! I take my own time writing it for it to be GOOD and all the other readers here understand that! So STOP PRESSURING me to post just because you get impatient. SO from now on, I post when I can, stop with the comments "I FAILED YOU ALL!" You have no right to say that! All the other people here don't leave comments like that!**

_Ripper's POV_

It had been 4 days since Astrid left to find Hiccup, although personally I believed she wouldn't find him because he was incredibly good at hiding. But it wasn't them I was worried about. The teens and Stoick and Gobber were supposed to stay in the village until Astrid returns...something that I hated. I spent five years on the run from them, just to end up living as neighbours with them, what did I do to deserve this?

I was lying on my bed under the furs with Heather peacefully asleep beside me. I had my hands behind my head resting on the pillow. It was the fifth day since their arrival, and luckily for me I had an off day today. Treeroot said that I had been working hard for the past week and I needed a break. I was more than happy to agree with him on that. Today I planned to spend the whole day with Heather...and stay away as far as possible from the others. I heard a soft yawn beside me and smiled.

"Good morning beautiful" I said as he looked to my left and saw Heather get up, wiping the sleepiness from her eyes.

"Good morning handsome" she replied back and bent down to place a kiss on my lips.

I surprised her by pulling her onto me, I could tell by the small squeal she gave. "Well someone's in a good mood today" she said as she placed both hands around my neck and I encircled her waist. "What's gotten into you?" she asked with a giggle as she used one of her hands to toy with my hair.

"I don't know...maybe it's because I have the day off today, and am going to make it my mission to spend it with you" I said giving her a peck on the cheek.

"Well, I know one way you could make it a day to remember" she said with a seductive voice and closing in with her lips.

"I think I already have an idea of what you're saying" I said in the same tone as she did and laid her on the bed while I got on top of her and connected lips. That feeling will never get old in a million years. Being with the person you love every single day for the rest of your life...it's the greatest feeling any person can I have.

_"Hey guys where's the fi...OH! I did not need to see that!"_ we heard a voice say and immediately disengaged from the kiss. We looked to the window to see Bladewing hovering outside the window with what looked like a smug smile on his face.

"Why do all dragons have to have an uncanny ability in interrupting people during special moments?" Heather asked. Yeah, I should have mentioned that Heather is the other person here that can understand dragons. She can make out what dragon's say but can't hear them clearly. She's still learning and she's progressing at a fast pace. Maybe it has to do with the wonderful teacher she has (wink).

_"I just love interrupting you two...it's funny"_ he said, performing a shrugging gesture with his wings.

"You're just mad because we slept in and didn't give you your fish" I said.

_"You bet I am mad! Do you know how much fish I need to keep my energy up. I mean look at me, I'm HUGE!"_ he exclaimed. Me and Heather just laughed in reply. I reluctantly got off Heather, the both of us being disappointed we couldn't continue our _session_. I guess we have more plans for the night. I went up to my desk to grab my shirt that I had left on the rear of the chair. I saw in the mirror that Heather began tying her hair at the top. I don't know how girls can fix their hair in the _exact_ position they want it to be without looking in a mirror.

_"Do you think that blonde found Hiccup and Toothless?"_ Bladewing asked, breaking the silence and still waiting for his fish.

"Doubt it, I mean if Hiccup doesn't want to be found, he won't be found" I said as I put on my shirt and straightened it out.

"That reminds me, you haven't talked to any of them since they came. Why?" Heather asked as she got up and went behind a wooden wall that I had set up so she could change behind it.

"Why would I? All they did was run me and Hiccup out of Berk and abusing Hiccup verbally and emotionally throughout his life" I said shaking my head at bad memories. "I don't know why they want to get Hiccup back all of a sudden. Stoick said that Hiccup wasn't his son anymore and I don't see why he's started caring all of a sudden" I continued.

"You never know Rip, maybe it is possible he's had a change of heart?" she suggested as she came out from behind the wall.

"Believe me, Stoick the Vast ain't too big on change, and he's certainly not big on change when it comes to caring" I said.

_"The young ones don't even seem too bright on anything either"_ Bladewing said. He was referring to the four late teens remaining here.

"Well Fishlegs I think is the only one who could be _reasoned_ with that dragons aren't what they think they are. Key word in that sentence is reasoned, as he might not believe us" I said.

"Well you have to try right? I mean since we're going out today, Bladewing has to come with us" she said. I turned around to see her dressed in a long sleeved red tunic, a blue skirt and black leggings that covered her entire legs. "We're bound to run into them at some point" she finished as she came up from behind and wrapped her hands around my waist and rested her chin on my shoulder...given she had to had to raise herself onto her tip-toes to do that. "That reminds me, where are we going today?" I asked.

"We're going to have a nice walk in the forest and a picnic there as well" she said with a smile. It had been a while since we had time to ourselves, with her being the chief's daughter and all that and me being the smithy of the village.

I turned her around so I wrapped my arms around her waist and said "That sounds like a wonderful idea" I said and kissed her again on the lips.

_"Enough with the kissy faces! Let's go!"_ we heard Bladewing yell or roar, or whatever dragons do. We disengaged our kiss and smiled at Bladewing's annoyed expression. We quickly went down to pack the items we would need for our hike. Heather grabbed some berries, fruits, some bread and beef. I packed a bag of fish for Bladewing when he got hungry during our hike. As she made sure that we had everything I went outside with Bladewing's barrel of fish and saw him waiting eagerly for it.

I opened the barrel for him and dumped the fish out, and he dug right into it. Among hearing the sounds of fish tearing, I began to think about Hiccup. Little did they know that I _knew_ where Hiccup was. That mansion he lives in was built in a week, and no one person with the help of a dragon could've built that in one week. The trees there were extremely heavy and would be too heavy for Toothless to even lift. When Hiccup found the perfect place he came back to tell us about it but said he would need help building a house. Me and Heather went to help him since, and I'm not being sexist here, only a woman knows how to decorate a house. Leave it to a man and it's all gone to pot.

Bladewing did his part well of making up that story of the dragons telling him where Hiccup lived, and even Treeroot and Heather played their parts well. Only the five of us, including Heather's mom, knew where Hiccup lived. Now I know what you're all thinking, why not tell them where Hiccup is...or why hint at where Hiccup is. Well we came to the conclusion that it would be for Hiccup's own good. He couldn't keep running away from his troubles forever, I mean he ran away because me and Heather got married, and that reminded him of his love for Astrid. I knew he was trying to get over that during his time in Sharkslane, but every time I saw him glance at me when I was with Heather, I saw that hint of sadness in his eyes. Him forgiving Astrid was the first step in his emotional recovery and a huge step in getting the old him back.

A loud burp and a fish head hitting me in the face snapped me out of my thoughts as I saw that Bladewing had finished his meal. "You still haven't learned table manners yet have you?" I asked wiping the fish slime off my face.

_"We're outside and I don't see a table so you're argument is invalid"_ he remarked at me. I sighed in defeat, he could be so annoying at times. I then heard the sound of the front door closing and being locked. I saw Heather with a basket that certainly had our food in it.

"Ready?" she asked. I dusted myself after getting up and said yes in a reply. I went up to her and offered to carry the basket for her. She accepted and handed me the basket as she put her left arm around my right arm which I had craned out for her and she rested her head on my shoulder as we started for the forest path with Bladewing right behind us.

It always felt calming to walk in the forest at any time of the day. You could always hear the birds chirping, it was never too cold like Berk and today it was sunny, it was warm and a perfect atmosphere to be out in the forest. We had our own special place in the forest secluded by thick bushes and the only path that led to it was hidden by some vines and leaves I had set up. It was about a twenty minute walk to the location and because of our chatting and having fun, we reached there in no time.

When we made out way past the vines, there was a small to medium size open space in front of us with a small pond in the middle being fed by a stream and a slab of rock in front of it. We set up our picnic on that rock and began to dig in. Bladewing went off into the pond to cool off a bit.

It was a perfect day, just the right weather, sun shining brightly in the clearing and the smell of the delicious food that Heather had packed for us, which she was taking out at the moment.

"So are we going to spend the whole day out here?" I asked.

"If you want to...we have the whole day off remember?" she said, and I nodded. Like I said it's been a long time since we've had any personal time with each other. I guess this outing today just felt out of routine for me...but in a good way.

"Yeah sorry, and honestly, I would like to spend the day out here...it's nice to slow down once in a while" I said taking some meat and bread and putting it on one of two plates that we had brought. The rest of the day consisted of us deep in conversation about events that had been happening.

About three hours had gone by just like that. Bladewing had joined our conversation in the middle of that time and from there on the topics really varied and I won't go into detail about them. Right now, me and Heather were sitting by the pond with my arm around her shoulder just enjoying each other's company...that was until...

_SPLAT!_

I felt something wet just hit my head from behind and I shot forwards because of the impact. I heard Heather yell out in surprise and as soon as I brought my hand to the back of my head to feel what just hit me, it was soft and mushy and when I brought it back I saw that it was bits of red. I smelt it to make sure it wasn't blood. "Tomato?" I asked recognizing the smell almost immediately. We both looked around to see if there was anyone but didn't see anything.

Then Bladewing came flew up to a certain tree and soon we heard yelling and shouts of terror and saw him come back down with four young adults being held by his tail and he dropped them roughly on the ground. I sighed in discontent that they followed us here.

"Keep that beast of yours under control!" Snot said readjusting his helmet to which Bladewing came right up to his face and snarled menacingly and he fell right back down on to his back.

"You know if I let Bladewing eat you I'll be doing this whole world a favour right?" I asked as I got up with Heather and came up to them.

"Can we see him get eaten!?" Tuff asked with a excited smile.

"What are you guys doing following me?" I asked. I was in no mood to be mad now. Sure they had ruined me and Heather's day off but I spent some quality time with her.

"It was all Snotlout's idea. He wanted to come and surprise you by throwing rotten things at you and even this" Fishlegs said holding up a few a rocks. When Bladewing saw this he immediately lunged at Snotlout and wrapped his tail around him in a death grip.

"Snotlout, when are you going to learn that you can't beat me, and you get banished by my chief for hurting the future heir of this tribe" I said looking smug at his ever purple face as Bladewing was slowly suffocating him.

_"Can I please throw him?"_ Bladewing asked looking at me. As much as I loved the idea, we shouldn't, the only reason stopping me was that Treeroot would be displeased and I wouldn't want to upset my wife's father.

"Put him down Blade" I said and with a grunt, he let go of Snotlout who fell back down on his knees gasping for breath. I walked up to him and when he looked up, grabbed him by his neck and lifted him. "Listen Snotlout, you're on my turf now. I should let Bladewing here do whatever he pleases with you...but I won't. Now how about you stop trying to annoy us and grow up" I said in a calm but deadly voice and dropped him.

"Just for the record I wasn't part of this" Fishlegs said.

"Why do you even listen to him Fishlegs?" Heather asked.

"Better question yet who does he think he is?" I replied to her looking at him get up.

"Well what do you expect, all you did was protect that fishbone when he was on Berk and he ran away from you a year ago. He's a coward. You both betrayed us" Snotlout defended himself.

"You still haven't let that go huh? Look behind me Snotlout, what do you see?" I asked. He did and saw Bladewing behind me.

"I have a dragon...our _supposed_ mortal enemy. He's a Whispering Death, one of the most _dangerous_ and _deadly_ dragons known to Vikings. He protects me, he protects Heather, and he protects everyone in this village. He is my best friend, and if you must know the dragon Hiccup rides treated him with more respect that any of you did in his entire life. So tell me Snotty, who are the real traitors here?" I asked.

All of them looked down at their feet realizing how badly they had treated Hiccup. "Ripper, I'm sorry for what I did to Hiccup and I want to make things right with him" Fishlegs said. At least I knew he could change, but what about the other three?

"Well if you'll excuse us, we need to make use of the day we have left" I said extending my hand to Heather to which she gladly took and we proceeded past them back to the village. "Ripper!" I heard my name being called out and I looked to see Fishlegs and the Twins coming up. "Can you possibly...let us...hang out with you?" Ruff asked. I also noticed behind her Snotlout had walked up to them with a annoyed look on his face. At least I could have some fun with him that his friends were now coming to me which made him jealous.

"It won't be a bad idea Ripper, we should let them come with us" Heather told me and I agreed. We'll still be together except with four more people, but at least Bladewing will be there.

"Sure we'll show you around" I said and gestured them to come with us.

"Your dragon won't try anything will he?" Tuff asked.

"Honestly he does what he pleases...he's a mischievous type at times" I said as me and Heather walked ahead of the group.

The teens looked to Bladewing who smiled at them, a hint of fun in his eyes. They quickly ran away from him and up to me, making sure he doesn't try anything.

_"This is going to be fun__"_ I heard him say, and I chuckled...because it was going to be fun. Hopefully Hiccup will be here soon, it'll be like old times.


	13. The White Death

**A/N: And now back to Hiccup and Astrid. Oh and I was wondering if you guys had checked out my other story Rider Vs. Conqueror. I've put a pause on it since I have a bit of writer's block for it, but you guys can read it if you want and tell me what you think of it. Maybe some encouraging reviews will help me get on track with it again. Enjoy!**

_Astrid's POV _

_"He is right"_ I thought. I had just walked out of his house and began walking in a random direction, not caring where I go or if I even get lost in this place. What I just told him in there, about me killing a dragon and feeling pride and glory for after it, that went against everything he believed...and it might have just ruined my chances in reconciling with him. And what was I thinking just asking him to come back. I just found him yesterday and right now trying to rip him away from his home. I looked around the valley he was in. I'm not going to lie, it was _jaw-dropping_.

The valley was guarded by two huge mountain ranges on either side, with snow adorning the peaks of them. The sun would set exactly in the middle, between those two ranges, and I could just imagine what the scene would like. The whole valley was filled with trees, mostly oak and pine trees and Hiccup's house was built on higher ground on this side, meaning he could just sit on the roof of his mansion and just watch for hours the scene that ley ahead of him and not get tired of the view. I swapped my thoughts back to the matter at hand...Hiccup's answer.

Every time I repeat all the reasons as to why he won't help us, the more I feel he is _not_ going to help us. I can't believe I only now realize that no human being should have been treated like that...and what makes it worse? We were _his_ village. He lived with us, talked with us, and yet we treated him worst than an Outcast. I should just leave and let him live in peace...away from us.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when a something big and white burst out of the trees in front of me and let out a blood-curdling roar. It was _massive_...bigger than Toothless and bigger than Ripper's Whispering Death, about three times bigger than Ripper's dragon. It had the same build like the Whispering Death, except red eyes, and a mouth that looked like it could swallow me with one gulp.

It looked right at me and I knew almost immediately, it wanted to _kill_ me. I bolted the other way, hoping to escape that dragon, but my effort became in vain as I heard the distinct sounds of falling trees and roars coming behind me...and they were getting louder. I never did this but I was desperate. I screamed, hoping Hiccup or Toothless would hear me.

I made a quick glance behind me but I didn't see anything which was weird, because I still heard the sounds of trees crashing and the dragon's roars. But when I looked in front of me all I saw was a the dragon's tail coming in from the side and hitting me. The hit was so strong, I was sent flying. It all happened so fast that I didn't even feel the pain from when the dragon hit me.

However I landed hard on the ground, and was sent rolling right into a small ravine, hitting several branches along the way. During this time, I was hoping it would all end soon, and it did...I landed right onto some soft earth, but the broken branches fell right onto me as well, and one, which was quite heavy fell onto my foot. I yelled in pain, my whole body was in pain. I looked at my hands and saw cuts and scrapes all over with blood starting to stain. I quickly tried to push the branch off my leg but it was too heavy. It was no use, I wasn't going to get out of there.

When I looked up I saw the dragon arrive and look at me, it still had the intent of killing me...and I did deserve it. I began to think that this was punishment for how I treated Hiccup. I would not argue with faith anymore because everyone has to pay with for the wrongs they had committed. My wrongs were not giving a crap about Hiccup, not coming to his aid, ratting him out and ignoring him for all his life. I looked up and saw the dragon lunge. Time again seemed to slow down, the jaws getting ever so closer in enveloping me in a world of darkness...a fitting end. I closed my eyes and waited for the razor sharp teeth to bury into my flesh and tear me apart.

_Hiccup's POV_

I sprinted through the forest, not caring if any of the branches hit me on the way. When I heard Astrid scream, my heart stopped for some reason, and then I began to have an adrenaline rush. Toothless was ahead of me, also running at incredible speed to the source of her scream. In all my days I never imagined the great Astrid Hofferson to scream. But when I thought about why, _"Oh no...if she ran into him"_ I thought and on instinct I ran even faster, faster than I think I've ever gone. I was not scared for her, it was the thought of the others coming to look for her if she took too long. And _he_ didn't like me as it was...all the more reason to get to Astrid now.

I saw Toothless dive into a ravine and heard a few loud growls and roars from Toothless and...him. I reached the ravine and slid down to see Toothless in a defensive stance in front of Astrid and...Armedis.

_"You two again! I thought I made it clear I never wanted to see you again!"_ the white dragon roared. Toothless made way for me and I stood directly in front of Astrid, who was severely injured and trapped by a fallen branch. She was completely frightened and I couldn't blame her.

"She's new here Armedis, she came here looking for me" I said but was interrupted.

_"If she came here looking for you then there's more coming! And I will not tolerate any more humans in this area!"_ he yelled back. I could see he was struggling to hold himself back.

"Believe me Armedis, she came here alone. As soon as I'm done healing her she'll leave" I tried to reason.

_"(growl) She has that air among her...she's _killed_ a dragon"_ he snarled and made a lunge for us but Toothless remarkably pushed him back.

"Armedis, listen! She will leave this place soon and I will never venture this far out. Please" I begged. I knew this dragon could easily kill me and Astrid, and even Toothless, reason was the only option here.

The white dragon calmed down a bit and stared over Astrid, that anger still in his eyes. _"Fine. But if I ever see you or any other human trespassing...I will not hesitate to RIP. YOU. APART"_ he emphasized the last three words and took off back to his side of the valley.

I let out a deep sigh of relief and looked at Astrid who had bewilderment and fear (mostly fear) written all over her face. I knelt down and examined her. She had many cuts and bruises over her arms, most likely from being thrown, or falling. Some of her clothes were torn, most likely from running and getting it caught on twigs and branches. The branch on her leg gave me a worry though. Toothless came over and pushed it off her foot, and she didn't move it.

"Is it broken?" I asked. My face was a bit close to hers now, and it did feel quite a bit awkward...and I could tell it was for her as well.

"I-I don't know...but it pains a lot" she said. She wasn't holding her foot, telling me that any pressure on it was painful. She couldn't walk back, that was for sure. Flying was not an option because with how Toothless handles, I didn't want Astrid injuring herself any further. The only other option was to...uh...carry her out and back to the house.

"I'll have to carry you back" I said placing my hands behind her back and under her knees. She looked away for a minute. Yeah this situation was getting more awkward by the second. "Alright" she finally answered and with that approval I gently lifted her off the ground and got in the bridal-style carry position as she placed both of her hands around my neck to keep herself up.

Toothless carved out a path up the ravine that would be fine for me to climb while carrying her. It took no time to walk out of that ravine, thankfully it was a ravine with dirt on each side rather than rocks. The house was a fifteen minute walk...just my luck...the Gods must really love me.

We went with a minute with awkward silence but that minute felt like a year. Here I was, carrying Astrid Hofferson bridal-style! I mean really, after all we've been through in the past couple of days? I didn't want to make eye contact because if I did I knew would start blushing and she also refrained from making eye contact as well.

"What was wrong with that dragon?" she asked breaking the silence. I should have expected her to ask that since, it almost tried to kill her.

"Vikings...that's what's wrong" I answered simply looking at her, but she had a neutral face on, telling me to go further.

"That dragon's name's as you heard me call it is..."

"Armedis...yeah I know. What I want to know is that he held himself back from killing you as well, and I thought you made friends with all the dragons in this valley" she said. Oh I wish I did.

"I did...except for Armedis. The reason for his hatred is what some Vikings did to him twenty years ago" I said, already feeling the tears come to my eyes. "When I first arrived here, I knew humans didn't live here, but I saw many dragons making this place their home. I went exploring in this area and about a mile on the other side of the ravine...Armedis found me...and attacked me. I was severely injured...I had a gash from the top of my chest to my stomach and it was bleeding profoundly. If it wasn't for Toothless, I'd surely be dead. The only reason he stopped attacking was when Toothless came to my defense which shocked him, but he still wanted to kill me" I began explaining. I looked at her and she was clearly hooked on the story.

"Toothless asked him why he hated humans so much...and when I heard what he told me...I cried that night...and every night for the next week because no living creature should ever go through that pain" I said, feeling a tear run down my cheek...but soon I felt a thumb wipe that tear away and Astrid staring at me deeply, encouraging me to continue.

"Armedis came here twenty years ago, from a large island about fifty miles north of here. He told of a mate he had and his first brood of hatchlings. He told us of how proud he was, that he was finally a father and had a beautiful mate to spend the rest of his life with...Then one day, he ventured out to gather some food. He had to travel a long distance for water since most of the island was surrounded by ice. He was about ten minutes into his flight when he felt a pain in his heart. The pain was that of your heart being struck and pierced by daggers and swords. He soon felt it multiple times and then he knew something was wrong...He turned around and flew back...as _fast_ as he could. During the trip back he could still feel his heart being pierced and soon he heard the painful roars of his mate and young. When he arrived back home...it was the worst scene you could imagine" I paused, to catch my breath.

"In front of him he saw the blood-stained body of his mate who was lying on the ground, barely moving, and when he looked around, he saw the bodies of his young, clearly dead. He then heard a faint cry of help and when he looked to his right and saw ten men cornering his last hatchling, with axes, swords and hatchets at the ready. Then all of a sudden...all the pain he felt, the sight before him, unlocked an uncontrollable rage within him. He let out a loud roar, grabbing the attention of the men, but it was too late for them. Armedis charged them...ripped...them...to shreds...literally. All that was left was blood all over the snow and ice with bits of bones and flesh littering the snow as well. Those Vikings never stood a chance. He saw that his last remaining hatchling was still alive and nuzzled it telling it was alright, but then he heard his name be called, his mate's voice. He immediately dashed over to her. It did not look good, she had multiple deep cuts and had already lost a lot of blood...he knew she wouldn't make it" I said, by now tears were running down my face, as well as a tear or two from Astrid.

"She told him that she knew he flew back as fast as he could, hoping that he would make it in time. You see when dragons mate, they create a bond that is stronger than any living being in these lands...so strong that they feel what each other feel's.

"She made him promise to take care of their last young one, who now was nuzzling its mother, crying as well, begging his mother not to leave. Armedis was also crying. She managed one last smile and with all her strength nuzzled him and he returned the gesture. But then the nuzzling stop and when he opened his eyes he saw her fall down to the ground, eyes closed...never to wake again. He looked back to his hatchling and felt extremely sorry for it...it was still nuzzling its mom, hoping in some way she would wake up. He blocked its path with his tail and moved him away from his mother's lifeless body. He looked down and saw the baby dragon pressing deeply into him, crying, probably hoping this was all a bad dream...Unfortunately it was all too real" I looked to her and saw she was still interested in what took place, so I continued.

"Armedis' heart was full grief, losing his mate and five of his six hatchlings...but that grief was replaced with pure rage. He knew where those Vikings came from, a village only five miles away. His family left them alone, they never annoyed the village...but now...Armedis took off in the direction of the village...and thus the creation of the 'White Death'" I said.

"Wait, the White Death, isn't that the story...of..." Astrid said as she looked me in the eyes, not wanting to say it was true.

"It is...Armedis killed everyone in that village. When the village went silent, people came to find out what was wrong, and found the remains of men, women...and children. They knew a dragon did it, but...they didn't know why. By then Armedis and his hatchling were long gone. He came here after he avenged his family to live away from any Vikings. That is why he attacked you, and why he attacked me when I came. He wants nothing to do with Vikings or any human for that matter" I explained.

We had now reached my house and Toothless opened the door for us and I carefully carried her in and went to my bed chambers. I gently placed her on the bed, placing some pillows against the backboard for her to rest on. I then went over to a cupboard to get the medical kit. I returned to find her taking off her trying to take off her left boot which housed her injury. "Here let me help" I said and gently removed her boot. I saw that she had some swelling but not that of a broken ankle or foot, more like a sprained ankle...which was still serious. It would be a week at least until she would be able to walk on her own again, or more.

"Ok, good news is it's a sprained ankle, bad news is, you'll be restricted to the house for a week" I said getting some cream out that would help reduce the swelling and some bandages to wrap her foot in. I heard her grunt from the pain, even more so when I had to tighten the medicinal cloth around her ankle.

"Thank you" she said softly as I finished, avoiding eye contact.

"You're welcome" I replied and returned the medical kit to the cupboard.

"I shouldn't be here Hiccup...you told that dragon I'll leave and I should" she said suddenly. I turned around to see she was looking at me. "It was a mistake to come here asking you to come back with me. I guess I was only thinking about how you could make life better for the people of Berk, for your father...but from what you've just told me, about the truth of the 'White Death'...I think it's the same story with all the other dragons. But Hiccup, you have to understand our side of it...we can't just let them take our food, I know killing them isn't right either, but we do what we have to survive!" she exclaimed, giving her side of the argument.

"I know you're against killing them but that's why we...I need you to come back...because with you there, we could finally solve what's going on with those dragons. So we can avoid the killings on either side...so we can avoid a similar story like Armedis'...so we can live in peace" she said the last part softly.

She's right. I've run from my past too long. It is true it is my past that has made me the man I am today...but forgiving the past is a totally different thing. If I go back, I have to face all the ridicule I received when I was useless, I will have to face my father, after he disowned me and I will have to face the people of Berk who treated me like an Outcast...I will have to face my greatest challenge.

I went up to Astrid and sat on the edge of the bed and placed my hand on hers and looked her in the eyes. I could tell she was waiting to hear the next words to come out of my mouth.

"I'll come back to Berk with you" I said.


	14. Bad and Good Surprises

**A/N: Hey guys. I know all of you must hate me for NOT UPDATING! I hate myself right now for not being able to update on a regular basis. I can give reasons as to why but what's the point. There are other people here who are more likely time consumed than I am. I CANNOT STRESS HOW SORRY I AM, but I hope this chapter can right my wrong for not updating. SO ENJOY!**

_Hiccup's POV_

The week went by relatively quickly. Astrid was ecstatic that I had said yes to returning back to Berk to help them end this war with the dragons. She said that that would change the course of Viking history...I sure hope she was right. Her foot healed quickly...the only trouble was making sure she stayed in bed. Me or Toothless would be on watch 24/7 making sure she didn't sneak away, and whenever she did try she wouldn't get far because there was always some point where she would grint from the pain which Toothless and I would hear.

We did venture out to show her the valley...well my side of the valley and not Armedis'. She had one word for it, _magnificent_. She said that she would love to live here and I didn't even show her the best part. One day at sunset, I told Toothless to carefully bring her to the roof of the house for her to see something that I wouldn't dare to miss. We stayed there on the roof, passing the time with conversation...until I stopped and looked off into the distance. At first she thought I was ignoring her, but when she turned in the direction I was looking at, a gasp escaped her mouth. The sun was setting, but we only saw half of it, right in between the trees, in the middle of the mountains and setting over the horizon, basking the entire valley in a multitude of red, yellow, orange and purple shades. I remember the look on her face and what she said, _"It's...it's beautiful...nothing like I've ever seen"_ were her exact words.

We stayed on the roof for a few hours, creating small talk; most of it was about life back on Berk. She told me that people were better-off without me, and I wasn't surprised, I mean, they were hoping to get rid of me some way. Betraying them was the best excuse for them to get rid of me. She told me how she even thought it was better I was gone, but she couldn't forget what Ripper told her, about my feelings that I had back then. She said that in a weird way, there was something missing in the village. Without me, the village seemed quiet and serene, how life should have been. No one was on edge, there were no surprises, people loved it, and she said she did for a time. But things started getting bored, without me, the excitement was gone. But for some of the old-fashioned Vikings liked it that way, saying that I was a curse and it was good I left.

I noticed her views were changing drastically; her views of dragons...and me, and I bet she noticed that too. After watching the sun set, we went back down inside and called it a night. She slept on the bed, and I slept near Toothless.

Today was the day where we would be heading back to Sharkslane and then back to Berk. I'd be lying if I said I was excited. I was only doing this so that their war with the dragons would be over and that they'll stop bothering me once all of this is done...at least, that's what I keep telling myself. I can't explain it, but...there's this feeling in me that I've never felt before, or something I've never felt in a long time.

"You ready to go?" Astrid called behind me. I turned around to see her walking, slightly limping, towards me with a satchel and with a cloak hanging from her shoulders.

"As I'll ever be" I replied. She could sense the anxiety in my voice and sat beside me.

"Hiccup...I know we've never treated with the respect and dignity you deserved...but please...just come back and help us and leave, and we'll never bother you again. And if there's any trouble back on Berk, I'll vouch for you" she said placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Really? You'll go against village traditions and help a screw-up?" I asked. "Ow!" I yelled as she punched me in the arm.

"You're not a screw-up Hiccup...well I know now that you're not a screw-up. You're much more than that, and it might take time...but the rest of the village will eventually see it as I do" she said. I looked into her eyes and saw that she meant every word she said.

"Key word in that phrase is 'eventually'. You might see things differently, but that doesn't change what happened in the past, and some people aren't too willing to forget their past" I said as I got up and called Toothless over.

"That is why I am working on redeeming myself...to you, to show you at least that one person can change, and I know you're still thinking that I'm doing this for the good of the village, thinking that I'm just using you...I'm not doing this for me...I'm doing it for my people, _your_ people" she said and I snapped when she said that.

"_My people_? Really? As soon as I'm done, I'm leaving and you're never going to come after me again...besides, people would treat me with respect I deserved and in that village, I had no people...I was on my own ever since the day my mother died, my own father didn't even care what happened to me after that...he never understood me, no has and no one will" I said looking at her.

"I know you're sorry for what you did...but that doesn't mean the other teens are or the rest of Berk for that matter" I finished. I began tightening the harness on Toothless, going over final checks before we took off.

"I think we both know they won't be happy to see you...but unlike the times before I'll have your back...it's about time I started" she said coming up behind me.

"You're really going to take in all the possibly hurtful comments, lookdowns and be ignored just for me?" I asked, a small grin crossing my face. She smiled back.

"I didn't like being made fun of for ten minutes, while you suffered for ten years...I think my debt is due" she said. I couldn't believe my ears, here was the great and mighty Astrid Hofferson pledging to stand by my side, and I know that since she was a shield-maiden she would keep her word.

"Well then, we don't want to keep Berk waiting do we?" I asked as I hopped on Toothless and offered to help her get on. She gladly accepted my gesture and climbed onto Toothless.

_"Tell the girl to hang on tight...we have to make the Dragon Highway"_ he said as he spread on out his wings. I felt Astrid tighten her hold around my waist, telling me she was a bit nervous.

"Don't worry...if you fall I'll catch you" I said and received a playful eye-roll from her.

Toothless shot up into the air with incredible speed, and it was something I lived for. Having the wind beat against your face, watching the ground get smaller and smaller as you flew high into the sky, as if leaving the world and initiating a pilgrimage to join the Gods in Asgard. You'd be thinking that I would have gotten used to it by now...but no...it's a rush every time I do it. I feel at home when flying on Toothless...its like all my problems are left on the ground and it's my own world up here. Except this time I had a passenger with me.

Astrid held on tightly at my waist when we took off as I suspected. The flight on the Deadly Nadder would be tough for any beginner, but to immediately switch to a Night Fury, and on your second flight, that would be tough to adjust to. "Doesn't it get your adrenaline running!" I exclaimed as Toothless flew higher and higher. Astrid looked behind her and saw the ground getting ever so farther away and even the clouds were getting smaller.

"You could say that" she yelled but clutching me ever so tighter. She looked back down and noticed this was much, much higher than the Nadder took her. "Why are we flying so high!" she yelled. I could sense the fear in her voice.

"We have to get to a certain point where the wind will quicken journey. Good thing you brought your cloak, it gets pretty cold up here" I said and soon Toothless broke through the final layer of clouds and levelled off, not before feeling a great push from behind us, and we were on our way.

"Well here we are on the Dragon Highway" I introduced to her.

"Dragon Highway?" she asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah, Toothless showed me this when we were flying to look for a place to call home. It quickens flying time because there's always a constant wind pushing in either direction. That huge push we got goes in a westerly direction, there's one that goes east as well" I said.

"How much does it quicken?" she asked.

"Well you know how it took you four to five days to reach that village from Sharkslane, we'll be able to get to Sharkslane in ten hours" I said, and laughed at the expression Astrid had on her face.

"That fast! That's incredible!" she exclaimed. "Yeah, Toothless told me about it and I didn't believe him at first; I had the same expression as you when he told me" I said. "It helps dragons get around faster, but it can be dangerous, because when you leave the wind stream, you're travelling extremely fast and you have to slow down fast as well" I explained.

"So..." I said un hooking my foot from the pedal, I turned around facing Astrid, "...what's new?" I asked, and nearly fell off after seeing Astrid's shocked expression.

"Shouldn't you be flying him!?" she said grabbing tightly onto the sides of the saddle.

"No, the wind pushes us so Toothless can just spread his wings and glide...he doesn't need to flap his wings...it's just smooth flying from here" I explained. "Are you sure?" she asked again.

"Yes Astrid, I trust Toothless with my life... I have his back, and he has mine...we're best friends" I said patting his side.

_"Right back at yah"_ he said.

_The Striker - 1 Hour from Berk (Normal POV - 9 hours after Hiccup and Astrid left for Sharkslane)_

The Striker, Berk's flagship, was almost back home after leaving Sharkslane. The mood was mixed among the crew while everyone was having dinner on the deck. Treeroot said that they should leave because Stoick couldn't be gone for long and that he would send Astrid back if she did return without Hiccup. Stoick didn't want to leave Sharkslane just yet, he wanted to wait for Astrid...who would possibly have Hiccup in tow with her, but he realized he had been neglecting his duties as chief and had been away from Berk for far too long.

"Give me back my fish!" Tuffnut yelled as he dived over the table, tackling his sister to the ground and another fight broke aboard the deck.

"Can't wait to see who wins this time" Snotlout said, getting a good view of the fight and diving into the chicken leg he had with him.

Stoick rubbed his temple as he couldn't understand why he had brought the twins along in the first place. "Alright you two, break it up" Gobber said coming up, hooking up Tuff's shirt and pulling Ruffnut away with his good hand.

"Uh...sir?" Fishlegs asked.

"Yes Fishlegs, what is it?" Stoick turned his attention to the husky young man.

"If Hiccup does come back...what are we going to do?" he asked.

"Well...we're going to treat him well as he is returning home and he'll be the key to finally ending this war with the dragons" he said. Honestly, he didn't know how to respond if Hiccup did return. He disowned him as a son, in front of everyone at that, and branded him as a traitor and enemy to Berk. He knew he would be lucky if Hiccup even acknowledged him.

"So what if Hiccup is able to fix this dragon war, what then?" Tuff asked sitting down.

"Well...we'll have peace and we won't have to worry about dragons again" he responded. The rest of the night went on and soon Berk was in sight, the lanterns along the docks and cliffs lighting up the village, however there were even more brighter lights...what looked like flames?

"Berk's under attack!" Stoick yelled and soon saw ships with catapults hauling hay alight with fire and boulders at the village. He took one look at one of the seven ships that were attacking Berk and one word crossed his mind.

"Alvin" he gritted under his teeth.

_Sharkslane - Same Time (Normal POV)_

"See told you it wasn't that bad" Hiccup said as Toothless landed and Astrid frozen with fear and not letting go of Hiccup. They had to get out of the Dragon Highway and that was the easy part, but slowing down was the hard part. Toothless did extend his wings and the force of them slowing down was extremely intense, and even that wasn't enough that Toothless had to angle his body sideways and expand his wings as much as he could to catch as much as he could. At one point he almost lost control and nearly went into a dive where the possibility of recovery was very slim given the speed they were travelling.

"Really? Cause I thought we were about to lose control, dive and die!" she exclaimed.

"You'll get used to it if you fly more with me" Hiccup said, laughing a bit to which Astrid punched him in the arm. "Yeah, I prefer to live past the age of twenty-five" she said as Hiccup slowly helped her off. Her ankle was good, but he played it safe.

"Hiccup!" they heard someone yell and Hiccup smiled when he saw Ripper, Heather and Bladewing land near them. The two of them hopped off the massive head and ran to Hiccup.

"Hey Heather!" Hiccup said as she enveloped him into a hug. "You know, with the place we built that house, I thought she'd never find you" Ripper said coming up to the trio.

"What? You knew where he was and never told me!?" Astrid yelled coming beside Hiccup, staring daggers at Ripper.

"Well yeah, that house was a two dragon and two person job, besides I didn't tell him you were coming" he said, unfazed by Astrid's glare.

"I should kill you right here and now for making me spend five days on a boat and nearly being killed by a dragon!" she yelled at him.

"Wait, you saw Armedis...and you survived?!" Ripper said, not believing it.

"Yeah, after a fight, she went wandering into the forest and she came face to face with Armedis, luckily me and Toothless intervened just before he was about to finish her" Hiccup explained. "Enough about me, tell me about you guys...how's it going?" he asked.

"Good, you just missed the guys...they left about nine hours ago" Heather said.

"They left without me?" Astrid asked, not believing that they would just forget her like that.

"No...uh, my father told Stoick that he shouldn't be away from Berk for too long as it's a chief's job to lead a village so he decided to go back and my father told him that he'd bring you back personally if you did return with Hiccup or not" Heather explained, sitting down on a log, but Astrid noticed something that was off.

"So I guess you'll be carrying on your trip to Berk, or will you be staying for the night?" Ripper asked.

"Well, I haven't see Treeroot in a while, so I guess we're staying" Hiccup said walking to the village.

"Coming Heather?" Ripper asked, before he ran to Hiccup.

"Oh yes...go on, I'll catch up" she said. If it wasn't night Ripper would notice the sickly look on her face, but Astrid did. Once the boys were out of ear range, she went up to Heather.

"Are you alright?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"No...sometimes, in the past couple of days, my stomach feels like its completed ten loops and in less than five seconds" she said, placing a hand over her stomach.

"Did you eat any rotten food or something weird in the past few days?" Astrid asked, to which Heather replied no with a shake of her head. But a few seconds later, Astrid saw a look develop on Heather's face...one of shock.

"I think I might know why I'm feeling like this" she said, and when Astrid put two and two together, the realization also hit her.

"I think I'm pregnant" Heather said.


	15. Good News All Around

_Normal POV_

Astrid looked on in utter surprise. She just came back less than ten minutes ago and now a friend...or more of an acquaintance...was telling her that she might be pregnant. "Heather, why are you telling me this?" Astrid asked. On their first visit, the village weren't at all ecstatic because of the trouble they caused when they were here and when they heard what they did to Hiccup.

"Well...first off, you're a girl...and I feel like this is something that I should tell a girl or woman to...and this is all of a sudden right now, I mean I had my assumptions, but weren't sure of them, and I need someone to confide in" she explained.

"But why me...I mean from all the stuff you've probably heard about me? What we did to Hiccup? How I ruined his life? Even I don't trust myself with a secret anymore. He asked me to keep Toothless a secret when I discovered them...but you know what I did? I ran right back to the village to rat him out. I was so caught up in jealousy of him being better than me in dragon training, that I didn't see the bigger picture. I didn't listen to him...something I deeply regret" Astrid said, sitting down beside Heather.

"Well by the looks of it, you two seemed to have made up" Heather said, trying to stay on the positive.

"Yeah...after he almost killed me...it's only thanks to his dragon I'm still alive. I've never seen him so angry" she said looking watching the moon's light glimmer on the surface of the sea.

"I don't think you understand the full effect you have on Hiccup, Astrid" Heather said. Astrid turned her gaze from the sea to Heather.

"Most men just gawk at me when I walked by in other villages on trade missions...even Snotlout just focused on me for my looks and nothing else...what makes Hiccup any different?" Astrid asked.

"Well did you ever know him as the kind to hit on girls? To make witty comments as some pretty girl walked by?" Heather asked. Astrid looked away to think about it but them immediate answer that came to her was no.

"You see...I was in the same position as you" Heather said and Astrid turned to listen. "Since I'm the chief's daughter I had to go with him to other villages and see what it was about chief, and in most of those villages there were young men who just finished puberty and were always hitting on me. I had my dad then to ward them off but I knew it wouldn't be like that forever, and I thought no boy would ever like me just for me...but then Ripper came along with Hiccup" Heather said Ripper's name in a dreamy tone, to which Astrid smirked.

"I think he was the first guy to ever see me for _me_...and at first I was skeptical, but then I began to see that he really wanted to be friends...he took an interest in the things I do, we played in the forest together with Hiccup, Toothless and Bladewing, and we bonded really fast. We almost never married though. Traditions state that the husband has to pay the bride's family after the night of their consummation...the dowry...and Ripper worked as hard as Hel to save up for that since he had no family here. He made these rings with the Hiccup's help and he made the sword that's implanted in the wooden beam in our house...I told him my dad wouldn't need the dowry as he accepted him as a son and wasn't worried about the payment since his main concern was my happiness, and seeing how Ripper made me feel was enough for him...but Ripper said he wanted to stay true to traditions, to show that he wasn't taking me for granted" Heather explained.

"When he first came, it was obvious that Hiccup was trying to get over someone, but he was never able to...and me and Ripper getting married only reminded him, or his imagination of what could have been. Ripper told me he had deep feelings for a girl back on Berk and he was trying to forget her, but it never worked and he's been living with those feelings ever since. We told him that it was nothing to worry about but...I guess it's hard to get rid of that feeling when he sees a girl like you" she explained with a sad smile.

Astrid stayed quiet for a few seconds. She never really saw Hiccup as an attractive man, maybe because of his lack in physical capabilities and his un-Viking like nature, but she never considered the effect she had on him and the emotional stress that he must have gone through. But seeing him after five years, seeing how much he has changed, physically anyway. But he had always maintained his kind attitude except this time...it was engulfed in grief, pain, sadness and anger. And she knew that she and Berk were the cause of that pain. However she didn't want to dwell on that problem right now.

"So...pregnant huh?" Astrid said, changing the topic. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"I think I have the symptoms of it, I mean I have been getting some morning sickness" Heather said.

"But wouldn't Ripper have noticed that?" she asked.

"Well, I wake up before him so he doesn't see me throw up a bit, and I thought I ate something bad, but the assumption of being pregnant has crossed my mind" Heather said.

"So how are you going to know for sure?" Astrid asked.

"Well, I can go to my village elder, who's also the healer and ask her. Can you come with me?" Heather asked getting up slowly and Astrid followed suit.

"Why do you need me to come? Besides, wouldn't your elder not like me since I'm from Berk?" Astrid said, recalling how the village didn't respond nicely to when they first came.

"Astrid...I hope we become close friends, I really do, and I see this as a start to that...besides, I know you like Hiccup. I can help you get close to him" Heather said with a smirk and folding her arms across her chest.

"What?! Heather...I don't like him...I never have and never will" Astrid said resting one hand on her hip.

"They all say that Astrid...and I can already tell you're not the _feelings_ sort of girl...but it doesn't hurt to show them once in a while...especially to someone like Hiccup. He wouldn't think any less of you...well, than he already has" Heather replied and started on the path that led to the village, closely followed by Astrid. She winced at this comment, not liking the memory of her betraying Hiccup.

The walk to the elder's house was uneventful. Heather presumed that Hiccup and Ripper were with her parents catching up and since this was late in the night, most of the village would be inside their homes. The elder's house was on the outskirt's of the village, and there was a light inside the house, indicating someone was home. She came up to the door and knocked three times. She waited for less than half a minute before finally someone came to open the door.

"Ah...Heather! So nice to see you!" the elder said giving her a quick hug.

"Good evening Ryda" Heather replied and noticed the scowl on the elder's face directed to someone behind her. Heather turned around to see Astrid meekly wave a hand to say hello. "She's with me Ryda, she's a new friend of mine" Heather said, gesturing for Astrid to come closer.

"Heard a lot about her, hope you've changed" Ryda said beckoning the two young women inside.

"I'm working on that at the moment" Astrid replied as she looked around the elder's home.

"So what can I do you for today Ms. Heather?" Ryda asked as the three of them sat down.

"Well..." Heather started and then looked at Astrid and she nodded for her to continue "...I think I'm pregnant" she answered.

The two women saw Ryda's face light up with excitement, except she kept a neutral look. "I must be losing my hearing, do you think you're pregnant?" she asked as she got up and began to look at her shelves for something.

"Uh yes, because over the past three to five days I've been experiencing morning sickness, throwing up a few times...so from what I've heard those the signs of pregnancy" Heather explained.

"Have you been developing any abdominal pains as well?" Ryda asked as she grabbed a bottle and poured something into two glasses.

"In fact yes, I have" Heather replied. Ryda came over to the two girls and gave them the glass.

"Now both of you drink up" she said and Heather drank hers without trouble while Astrid immediately spat hers out.

"What in the name of Loki is that!?" she yelled as she wiped her mouth.

"What do you mean? Nothing's wrong with it" Heather said, finding Astrid's facial expression priceless.

"Well then, I don't know who burned your tongue but right now you should be glad they did. What was that stuff?" Astrid said, looking at Ryda.

"Oh that, just a special mixture I made out of some herbs, leaves, algae and probably week old fish" Ryda said with a smirk and soon Heather had the same expression Astrid a few seconds ago.

"I found out that women who are not pregnant won't be able to drink this, but women who _are_ pregnant will...so I believe congratulations are in order" Ryda said hugging Heather who returned it.

"Why did you give me a drink when I'm not the one in question of being pregnant!?" Astrid said standing up.

"Well...to prove a point and because I knew it was going to be funny to watch" Ryda said with a small laugh. Astrid merely rolled her eyes and convinced herself she deserved it. "So does anyone else know of this wonderful news?" she asked Heather.

"Uh no...right now it's just you, me and Astrid" she replied with a huge smile. This was wonderful news...becoming a mother and Ripper becoming a father, and after one year as well...she knew Ripper would be ecstatic.

"Wait that reminds me...when was the last time you two did _it_?" Ryda asked, rubbing her chin.

Heather blushed a deep red, that Astrid tried to stifle a laugh but failed at it. "Isn't that _private_ information?" Heather asked in low voice.

"Yes it is...sorry dear, couldn't help myself making this situation awkward for you. Remember, tell your family of the good news" Ryda said as she bid the girls goodbye from her door. Heather and Astrid both waved goodbye and began their way to Treeroot's house.

"So...when did you two start adding to the populous?" Astrid asked with a sly grin.

"Really, you too...what don't people get about privacy?" she asked. She looked at Astrid and saw her shrug her shoulders.

"Well, isn't this what girl-friends tell each other, about their private life...I'm new at this tell your feeling thing" Astrid said.

"Clearly" Heather responded to which Astrid gave a short humph. "Well if you must know the last time we did it was about two weeks ago, so the baby's two weeks old" Heather said.

"How did it feel?" Astrid asked all of a sudden.

"Well, finding out I'm pregnant would be a big surprise to any..." Heather started but was cut off.

"Not that...I mean...the _other_ thing" she said, slightly blushing as to why she would ask that.

"Ok...you are moving way past the privacy boundary, you know that?" Heather said, blushing a deep red as well.

"But isn't this what girls talk about, married young girls...look I don't even know why I asked the question" Astrid said dismissing it with a wave of her hand.

"Well...I guess I haven't really told anyone, but...let's just say it's the most _amazing feeling_ you'll ever experience. Like I said, me and Ripper love each other, and when you move to that level, it's like the whole world opens up, to have someone who loves you for _you_, with your pros and faults...someone who you know will always stand by your side no matter how many hardships you'll face in the future. Sure we have our fights, but that's a challenge every young couple goes through, but that doesn't stop us...and I'm sure you'll find someone Astrid" Heather said at the end, since she knew Astrid wanted an idea of what true love is.

"Like I'll ever experience that" she said looking the other way.

"You know, your perfect match could be on the other side of this door" Heather said as they reached her father's house. But as she reached for the for the door handle, the door opened and Hiccup was at the entrance, however he had his face turned to the table where the rest of the family were sitting when he opened the door. Heather looked back at Astrid and let a giggle escape her. "Guess I was right" she said as she walked past Hiccup, who looked in confusion to see Astrid's blushed face.

"What were you two talking about?" he asked.

"Oh...you know girl talk...and that stuff" Astrid said as she walked in. "Were you going somewhere?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I was going to go back to the forge since that's where I lived here" he answered.

"You might want to stay for the news" she said with a knowing smile. Hiccup looked unsurely at her, "What news?" he asked. "Wait for it" was the only reply he got from her, but then he saw Heather talking to her parents and Ripper.

"Where were you two? Your parents and I were getting worried" Ripper said as he released his wife from the hug.

"Astrid and I were talking about...stuff, and I wasn't feeling too well so I went to Ryda to check it out" Heather said.

"Are you ok? It's nothing serious is it? I mean I'd feel so helpless if I couldn't protect you even from a small fever" he said.

"You'd protect me, against what?" she asked, prolonging the inevitable news. "Well...let me see, I'd fight the Outcasts, the Berserkers, wild dragons, the Roman Empire...I'd fight _anything_ to protect you, and I'd feel mighty sorry for the people who would try or did hurt you" he said taking her hand in his. Heather was expecting to hear that from her husband, guess it was time to tell he would be protecting two people now.

"Well...I hope you have room for another person in your protection" she said and laughed a bit seeing his confused stare. "What do you mean?" he asked. She slowly placed his hand on her stomach and held it there with both her hands. She could see he glanced to and from her eyes to her stomach, in utter disbelief. But after about a minute of speechlessness, he was able to find the words.

"You're...you're...you're..." he stuttered, and she guessed she'd have to finish his sentence for him.

"I'm pregnant!" she said, and soon after she said that, Ripper enveloped her into a huge hug and gave her one of the longest kisses she'd ever have from him.

"That's wonderful news!" Treeroot bellowed as he watched the whole scene unfold before him.

"I guess those tries finally worked huh?" Ripper said as he and Heather broke apart from the kiss. "Yes it did" she said as she had her arms around his neck and his around her waist, both staring lovingly into each other's eyes.

"Oh, my daughter's going to be a mother!" Jessel said as she came and gave both her daughter and son-in-law a hug.

"Well my boy, I hope you've prepared well because raising a child is one of the most difficult tasks in life" Treeroot said as he laid a hand on his son's shoulder.

"I'll take good care of them sir. Don't you worry" Ripper said, looking at his wife, who was now talking with her mother and Astrid.

"Well, looks like you two have been busy when I was gone" Hiccup said giving a pat on Ripper's back. He merely laughed at his friend's suggestion.

"Yeah, well...we eventually got it didn't we. I got to tell ya', learning of news such as this...becoming a father, you're filled with both pride and fear" he said. Hiccup looked at him, wondering why he said fear.

"I never had a real family Hiccup...I was raised by Berk, by all the people from Berk...I didn't have a mother or a father, and that's why I don't know if can handle being a father when I never really had one" he explained. Hiccup understood him all too well.

"At least you have a reason...me, losing my mother at a young age and a being under the care of a father who didn't even understand his own son...that's how I was brought up, no love, no kindness, no understanding, no family...even when I had one. You're a great man Ripper, and take my word for it...you'll make a _wonderful_ dad" Hiccup said resting his hand on Ripper's shoulder. Ripper returned the gesture with a smile and left to attend to his wife.

Hiccup in the meantime saw it was time to leave since it was getting late.

_"Did you have fun gathering with the others?"_ Toothless asked as he saw his rider.

"Yeah, it was really nice to see my family again...turns out Heather is pregnant" he said.

_"Bladewing told me about it, he knew about the baby from a week ago...and before you ask, dragons have a sense where we can detect an aura around all living beings, so he noticed the change in Heather's aura, something seemed different about her...and guessed it was a baby since it was recent from when they mated"_ Toothless explained.

"Hiccup!" they heard someone call behind them, and looked to see Astrid running towards them. "Is it ok if I bunk with you tonight?" she asked once she caught up.

Hiccup looked at Toothless who merely shrugged and continued on his way to the forge. "There's no room in the village inn?" he asked. He might have gotten used to Astrid being around, but not always around.

"Treeroot told me the inn was closed and they didn't have any spare rooms either, so maybe...I could come with you?" she asked.

"Uh...sure, what harm could it do?" Hiccup said and the two engaged in small conversation as they made their way out of the village, and didn't notice the two dragons having a chat.

_"So, how long do you think it'll take before they admit their feelings"_ Bladewing asked.

_"If they weren't so caught up in their past they'd have mated by now"_ Toothless replied.

_"That is true, but we all know what that girl did to Hiccup, it will take time for him to heal properly"_ the larger dragon said.

_"It's been 5 years since the incident, and I can tell he gets lonely, he longs for a mate, and even though that girl was the route of his hatred, she is also the source of his love. I just hope he can see that before it is too late"_ Toothless answered as he and Bladewing watched the two walk together.


	16. Feelings Admitted

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the late update, but I hope you like this chapter. P.S: This chapter is RATED T/M so, you have been warned. **

_Hiccup's POV_

The walk to the forge was filled with awkward silence after that little chat for the first minute or so, but I don't why it was so awkward. Was it just because the girl of me dreams was walking beside me and I didn't know what to say? Or was it that a week ago I tried to kill her and she had poured her heart out to me and did something I thought I'd never see...cry.

We both tried to minimize eye contact because we didn't want to engage in conversation since both of us knew we'd end up in awkward silence again...or just because we didn't know what to say to each other, either way. I didn't see Toothless after we left Treeroot's house, I guess he's probably with Bladewing catching up on old times. It would have been so much better if he were here because then I can have someone to talk to without it being awkward.

"So...how long have you lived in this forge?" Astrid asked breaking the silence, and I'm sort of glad she did.

"Well, Treeroot gave it to us when we first came and handled the dragon problem. It was pretty run down, but we managed to get it back in working order" I answered as enthusiastically as I could.

"Did you add any personal touches...something that would make it feel like home?" she asked.

"Define home" I said. I meant it as a joke but I noticed she looked away, trying to hide a frown because of the guilt she had for not doing anything. "Hey I meant it in a funny way...we're past that now...besides it doesn't mean anything to me anymore" I said, trying to lighten her mood. I lied, but I didn't like seeing her like this, not after what we've been through.

"It might not mean anything to you...but it does to me. You don't know how much it hurt me when I finally realized the pain you went through. I feel mad at myself for not doing _anything_ to help you...and I shouldn't be forgiven" she said. I smiled at her, a kind and loving smile and absentmindedly, I put my arm around her shoulder and brought her close.

"It means so much to me that you understand what I feel, you're the only one from Berk who has understood me and probably the only one who will...but I've grown used to it, more than you think that it just seems like normal to me...and now that we've made up, I have definitely become more of my old self again" I said. She smiled and looked at my eyes and I looked at hers. Her eyes were the most beautiful I had ever seen in my life. Those sky blue eyes showed fire, passion, a spirit that could not chained, a spirit that would fight to its very last breath. But other than the sheer fire of her spirit, those same eyes also showed kindness, care, love; a side that I had never seen from her...and I think I was experiencing that side right now.

_Astrid's POV_

I don't know why he's so forgiving...I have never met a person like that and probably never will. All this time I've been taught that kindness was a weakness...that you just let your enemies live when they should have died...but are dragons really our enemies now? Hiccup let Toothless live and look where they are now. Same story with Ripper and Bladewing...both pairs are inseparable. Perhaps kindness and compassion are the strongest trait a Viking can have.

But as I looked into those eyes, I saw the warmth, kindness, understanding, loving, caring boy...no, _man_ in them. But I also something else. He said he might have been used to being a screw-up, that it's him now, but I can see the pain, suffering, ridicule and torment in those same eyes. If I was him I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the person who sealed his faith...someone like me. And yet here is, with his arm around my shoulder, bodies side by side, telling me through those same eyes that he doesn't care what I did...since he had forgiven me. But I knew I had to make it up to him one way or another.

_Hiccup's POV_

I realized that I had my hand around her and we were _extremely_ close to each other...so close that we could feel each other's body heat. I immediately pulled my arm off and moved a bit farther and she did the same. My cheeks flared up, and I knew if I looked into a mirror, I would be red as a tomato. I think Astrid was also trying to hide her blushing because she had her face turned the other way when I glanced in her direction.

"Uh...sor-sorry...b-about that" I stuttered. Wait, how long has it been since I stuttered?

"No, there's...nothing to be sorry for Hiccup, I got too close" she said, this time looking at me and pushing away a few bangs from her eye. We again found ourselves caught in a stare, but she quickly moved on.

"So...is that where you live?" she asked, looking ahead of us. I turned my sight forward and saw the forge on the hill. A small smile made its way to my lips, it was good to be home. It looked just as I had left it. Ripper told me he didn't make any changes since I left, and that it was in tip-top shape. Seeing it brought back so many memories as well.

As soon as I opened the door and walked in, I was met with the sweet smell of iron, steel, and the smell of the hearth. To many people that might not be reminders of home, but to me, after spending my entire life in a forge...it's as close to home for me than anything else. Me and Ripper messing about in the forge brought back the memories of near disasters that took place...except it never resulted in the forge exploding or being severely damage. Caused a bit of commotion here, but unlike Berk, the villagers here didn't berate me or Ripper for the mistakes we made. Instead, they just told us to be careful when we were working, which we were half of the time, and said it was alright. How could Berk be so different than this village? Was it just because I had name to live up to, a title that gave me control over arguably, the most powerful tribe in the Archipelago's, or was it just because who I was before I was banished. Berk always showed signs that they never wanted me as a chief, and couldn't believe I was Stoick's son. I was nothing like him at the time...and still aren't.

"This is...cosy" I heard her say, interrupting my train of thought.

"Yeah, it isn't a house like those in the village, but it's as close to a home as I have" I said, moving a few papers around from my desk, which was left untouched for a whole year.

"We weren't ever a real home to you were we?" she asked. I turned to look at her and she was examining some of the forged weapons on hanging on their racks.

"No...no, I never felt at home in Berk. Viking law dictates that a new born that appears to be weak or smaller than the average new-born should be cast away at sea and let the Gods decide its fate...I bet my mom stopped my dad from doing that, because I remember clearly that my mom protected. She used to shout at my dad for yelling at me, she talked to Snotlout's parents every time he bullied me...she was always there for me" I said.

Astrid stopped her tour of the forge and looked at me. "Well, I guess, no one understands a mother's love right?" she said.

"No, most people take it for granted. You'll never know until it truly is gone...and never coming back" I said, sitting down on a stool as I felt a few tears come to my eyes. I then felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked to see Astrid standing in front of me, with a sympathetic look on her face.

"I remember your mom. My mom always spoke highly of her, how she wouldn't let anyone stop her from doing things she wanted and mainly beating up anyone who made remarks about her son. She told me that Viking law did demand you to be cast off, but your mom threatened to actually _kill_ anyone who came near you. She even told her that you would grow up to be the strongest Viking there is...I guess she was right" Astrid said pulling me up with both her hands.

"Enough about the past, tell me a tale of one of your famous adventures" she said, setting me down on my bed and pulling up a chair from my desk for her to sit on.

"Well, I've been on many adventures, so I don't know where to start" I said.

"Come on! There has to be something...I mean new dragons, new enemies...wait if you've travelled, then that means...did you meet anyone special?" she asked. I immediately began to feel my cheeks heating up when she asked me this.

"You did didn't you?" she asked. By the sound of her voice, to me she sounded...jealous?

"W-well...I-I might have met...a few girls...yes" I stuttered.

"How were they?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What do you mean?" I asked, although, I think I did have an idea of what she was asking me.

"Like, were they beautiful, did you fall for any of them?" she asked.

"Well, honestly, not really. There were some beautiful girls I met...but none of them caught my eye. But one thing's for sure, I certainly caught their eye, because they were literally swooning all over me" I said with a chuckle but stopped when I saw Astrid's steaming face. "Does that bother you?" I asked, knowing it did.

"What no, Freyja herself could throw herself at you and I wouldn't care" she said, turning around, but once she did, she laid eyes on my desk and the wall adjacent it...where there were literally hundreds of sketches of landscape, Ripper, Heather, Toothless and Bladewing which hung on the wall.

"Hey Hiccup, do you mind getting me some water, I'm pretty parched" she says.

"Sure, no problem" I said, and got up and walked into the next room. But when I took the jug, it was empty and I didn't have any other supplies of drinking water in the forge. "Hey, I have to go to the stream that runs near here and get some water ok?" I say, and I hear an 'ok' from her, so without a second thought I left the forge and left her in the room with all my secrets.

_Astrid's POV_

I never turned my head from the wall that was adorned by sketches of Hiccup's closest friends and his...new family. There were sketches of the village, and even...an aerial view? I took that sketch down and looked at it more closely. I swear if I was up in the clouds right now, and held this image right in front of me and looked down at the village, it would look exactly the same. How can he be _this_ good at drawing?

I put that sketch down and examined the others. There were some of Heather and Ripper laying down in the grass together watching the sunset with Toothless and Bladewing in the distance, I guess 'talking' to each other. I never knew Hiccup has this talent...then again, what did I know about him? I ignored him my whole life, treated him like an outcast and just saw him as an itch the village could never get rid off. "I really don't know him" I said out loud, since I knew no one was in the forge.

Glancing back to the table, I catch something brown under a few papers. I move them out of the way and find a medium to small book. It didn't look like a book that you could learn about, it looked more like a...journal...Hiccup's journal. I picked it up and just stared at the cover, contemplating whether I should go through it. But if I did, I would be invading his privacy, but then this could be my only chance to know him...his thoughts, be it bad or not...I need to know his feelings, because if I do, then I could _possibly_ resolve my feelings.

I opened the book and turned to a random page:

_Gobber gave me the task to create my first real weapon. I had been working in the forge for over an year now, and for being 10 years old, I was pretty good with mastering the skills of sword and axe making, and repairing them. I guess it's the only _good_ thing that I can do without getting in anyone's way...except Gobber's but unlike my dad or the village, he doesn't mind it...to a certain extent, which I am deeply thankful for. _

_He told me to create an axe, that should be about my size. I didn't know why he asked me to, but just said it was an order by someone from the village. So I did my task, created the most perfect weapon I ever made. It took me about three days to make it, but on the third day when I was almost done, I overheard Astrid (the love of my life)..._

I smirked at this comment.

_...talking with her dad. "Dad when can I get my present!?" she asked, pulling on her dad's arm. _

_"Now, now Astrid, it's a surprise" he said, continuing on his walk with Astrid still pulling on his arm. "But dad, I really want to know!" she said. She was always stubborn and wouldn't take no for an answer._

Stubborn huh Hiccup? Wait till you get back with that water so I can drench you in it.

_"Well let's just say that I told Gobber to make it" her dad said. _

_That's why Gobber wanted me to work on this axe and make it my size. But then, since it was almost ready I ran back to the forge and took it to the smelter. I kept the blade in it to get hot enough for me to engrave a phrase into it. I wrote in Valkyrie's Blade...because she was Valkyrie in my eyes. One of the most beautiful girls I've ever and will see. But who am I kidding, she'll never fall for a talking fishbone like me. _

I stopped reading there and flipped to another page. I frowned when I saw the date of the page, it was a few days after Hiccup and Ripper ran away.

_Well, we found a new home, made a new friend and changed the life of a village completely. Not a bad day if I say so myself. But...there's something nagging me. I don't know what but every time I think about it...it takes me back to..._her. _Why couldn't she listen! Why couldn't she see what dragons really are. She ran to tell Stoick about Toothless, she was the reason my best friend was taken from me, and the reason I almost lost another. _

_I can't believe I ever liked her, and for what...her looks? Her fiery attitude? Or was it because I thought she was different from the rest of Berk? I'll never know, and I don't care...she's in my past and past can burn in Hel for all I care._

I winced at these comments...but I don't know why. Everything he said holds truth in them. I turned the pages again and came to something that stopped my heart. It was a sketch of me, holding me axe over my shoulder and one hand on my hip. This sketch was near the end of the book, possibly in the last week or so. Beside the image was a text:

_I guess the Gods have had fun reuniting me with Astrid. But I don't know if it's good or bad. She said she was sorry for everything, and I believed her. I hope I'm not making a mistake by doing so. But something else came up when I saw her after all those years...a feeling that I thought I had buried when I left Sharkslane. _

_She looks just as beautiful as ever, how her hair glows in the sunlight and moonlight, the same fiery spirit, but seeing another whole new side to her...she was caring, kind, even loving...and she finally saw what I was talking about, how dragons are not mindless creatures but caring, loving and loyal to their friends. But...GAH! Why is this so hard to say even in a book?! _

_I think...I...love her. _

I felt a tear run down my cheek when I read this. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, loves me. A few years ago I would have been revolted by that idea...but now, I don't know what to think.

_I've done many dangerous things in the past. Facing the Outcasts alone, confrontation with a Roman ship, being trapped on an island with wild Whispering Deaths...but none can compare to my fear of telling her this. I don't know what to do. _

I closed the book and kept it back on the table. I didn't want to read any further because I knew more tears would just come to my eyes. That's when I heard footsteps behind me.

"You've done some dangerous things in the past right?" I asked without turning to face him.

"Yes, I have..." he said, but his voice sounded off. It didn't have the confidence or the 'Hiccupness' like it did before. He was uncertain of something. "...but there's one thing that I'm afraid to do" he said.

I turned around and saw that he was standing in front of me now. I got up so I could look him in the eyes, even though he was a bit taller than me.

"You've faced Outcasts, a Roman Ship, wild dragons...what possibly can compare to that" I asked. We were both talking in low voices...and our breathing had increased. My stomach felt as if it was doing hurdles ten times over and being tossed in a storm. My emotions were screaming at me...I wondered if he was feeling the same thing.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" he said. Our faces weren't that far apart now.

"Don't tell me...show me...show me that bold action you're afraid to do" I said, and he did it.

I felt his lips touch mine and he had his eyes closed. I closed my eyes to see the feeling of the kiss and I felt him hold my hand as we kissed. For the first time in my life, I felt I had found someone. Someone, who loves me for me...now I knew how Heather felt when she told me that. Someone who just doesn't go for my looks, but my personality as well, and I drove that someone from home 5 years ago and here is now kissing me. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, he pulled away. I opened my eyes from possibly what was the best experience in my life and looked to see him staring at me with those soft, emerald green, caring eyes.

_Hiccup's POV_

I couldn't believe what I just did. When I had left to collect water, that gave me a chance to collect my thoughts...about Astrid. I don't know what's happened to me! Just over two weeks ago I wanted nothing to do with her and since the time she showed up, the time she begged for forgiveness, and seeing a whole new side to her...Gods! What's wrong with me?! DO I LOVE HER!? Did those feelings ever die down? But it's too late for that because I just kissed her...on the lips...of Astrid Hofferson. I waited to get a response from...

_THWACK!_

I felt a huge pain in my left cheek as I stumbled back a bit from the blow. My immediate reaction was to bring my hand to my cheek and hold it. I bet my life it was red as a Monstrous Nightmare's hide. I looked at her and saw her retracting her arm which she had used to punch me.

"What was that...mhmm" I couldn't finish my sentence as she snaked both arms around my neck and brought us into another deep kiss. I was so surprised to say the least as she just punched me and now kissing me? I guess I'll never understand her. But right now, the situation I was in...I didn't care. I closed my eyes to make my experience more enjoyable for myself and her.

I pushed her back onto the edge of the table...her arms had never left my neck. I used my left hand to support us, while my right hand snaked around her lithe figure. We probably spent ten minutes in that position without even knowing it...but we didn't care. Our emotions had taken full control of us and we loved it. That's when I decided to try something. I pushed my tongue against her teeth, begging for entrance to her mouth. She must have understood because I soon felt her teeth part ways and entered my tongue into her mouth.

"Mhhm" I heard. Did Astrid Hofferson just moan?!

We both disengaged from the kiss for a minute just to catch our breath after some intense lip-locking. "So, since when did the great Astrid Hofferson moan?" I asked, a small smirk grazing my lips. My heart was travelling far above the ground right now, and wouldn't come back down, meaning that I wanted to continue.

"Oh shut up and kiss me" she said before pulling me back in, creating a more passionate kiss.

I brought my hands to her thighs and lifted her, and on instinct she wrapped her legs around my waist while I held her up.

"Well, you've really become stronger" she said, smiling a bit from the brief pause of kissing.

I moved over to the bed, which was right opposite my work desk, and gently laid her on the bed, without pulling away from her lips for a second. I could feel her hands get entangled in my hair, continuously pressing my face to hers. My hands left her legs and began roaming along the sides of her body. Being on top of her, in a position of command..._kissing her__!_ I must be dreaming...but if I am, it's a dream I don't want to wake up from.

_Astrid's POV_

_"I can't believe he's kissing me!"_ was the only thought that was going through my head. When he first kissed me, I punched him because that was for leaving, but I didn't get to tell him that, but I just wanted to experience that feeling again so I kissed him...and here we are, on his bed, my hands tangled in his hair and his hands exploring my body, the exterior anyway. The way our lips blended with each other...the love, the passion in the kisses...it was nothing like I've ever experienced and it was something I didn't want to end soon.

I moved my hands from his head to his back...and boy did I receive the shock of my life...he had muscle! He was still relatively thin compared to traditional Vikings, but I didn't mind that. I could feel the outline of his muscles, most probably forged by his training, flying and forging of weapons. Wait...if his back was what I thought it would like, then what about his abdomen?

_"What am I thinking? I'm Astrid Hofferson, best shield-maiden on Berk...and yet here I am wondering how Hiccup would like without a shirt". _Ah screw me reputation. No one from Berk is here to see this, so if any person is going to see my true self, it might as well be Hiccup. I moved my hands from his back to the point where his shirt met his waist and started to pull it over, but he stopped.

He disengaged from the kiss and looked at me as if I, and I began to worry that I had done something wrong. He pulled back up so now he was in a straddling position, and held my hands. "I don't think you want to see what's beneath" he said. His voice had a mixture of fear and resentment (not about me, but something else).

"What wouldn't I like?" I asked quietly, somewhat annoyed that he ruined the moment.

"It's just...I...I have some...scars underneath, and I'm not...comfortable with...people seeing them" he said slowly. Scars? Really, he was worried about that?

"Hiccup...it doesn't matter if you're face is covered in scars right now...I see you for _you_ now and nothing will change that" I said.

"It's not that Astrid...it's just...I was alone when I got them...no other person was with me, and...that left lasting impressions on my life" he said. I made a small frown, nothing would be accomplished this way. I caught him off guard and quickly flipped us so that he was lying on the bed and I was on top, and I got myself into a straddling position on his hips.

"Why would you think that I would think any less of you just after finding out what you've been through?" I asked.

"Because no one would understand Astrid" he said, looking at me with his emerald green eyes...Gods were they handsome. I held his shirt from the bottom, "Then let me try and understand" I said and began removing his shirt. He sat up for a while so I could remove his shirt...and shocked would be understatement at I saw.

On one side of his torso, there was a scar that led right from his stomach to over his heart. There were also a few other cuts, most likely from swords but he never said he was in any fights. "That huge scar from my stomach to my chest was by Armedis when I first met him. I might have escaped with my life, but it was a reminder to never go near him again" he said. I traced my hand along that scar, and he winced a bit. I don't think it was from the pain, since it was a long time ago...but I think it was because this was the first time another _person_ actually saw it. "Luckily Toothless was there to help me get back and heal myself" he finished.

"What about these other scars" I asked, seeing about five to seven more scars on his body. He smirked a bit.

"Three of them are daggers and four of them were from whips" he said. I immediately looked back up at him, disbelief in my eyes. He had gone through _torture_?

"I was captured by the Romans once. It was in a land south of here, and they saw me trying to train a dragon. They captured me, and tortured me to share the secrets of Dragon Training, but due to my Viking stubbornness, I didn't comply. Once again Toothless saved me and we escaped" he said. I looked back at his scars. Toothless was the only companion he had who stood by him no matter what. Hiccup has gone through so much, and no one was there for him to confide into, or understand him, just Toothless. But that was going to change today.

I leaned forward and placed a tender kiss on his lips. "You're not alone now" I said, and began to remove my shoes, and tossed them on the floor. I then moved to my shoulder pads and uncoupled them and tossed them on the floor as well.

"Astrid...what are you doing?" he asked, as I bet he knew where I was going with this. I made a small smirk at him before lifting my shirt over and tossing that as well. It was amusing to see Hiccup's expression.

_Normal POV_

Hiccup couldn't help but stare at the sight before him, Astrid Hofferson, straddled on his waist and without her shirt. She did have her breast bindings on but, her beauty had just reached new levels. Even in the dimness of the candle lights, her skin seemed to glow, her eyes sparkle, and from just staring at her skin, could tell that it would be the softest thing he ever touched.

"No one was there for you at Berk...but I want to change that Hiccup...I want to be with you...and I'm not just saying that because I want you to come back, but because I...I..." she paused as she couldn't find the right words to say it, but Hiccup beat her to it.

He cupped her face in both his hands and placed a tender, yet loving kiss. "I love you too...I always have" he said, staring off into her sky blue eyes. Astrid smiled as she took in the reassuring feeling from his hands...happy that someone understood how she felt, but then, she decided to reward him.

She pulled back and her hands reached up to her braid and a few seconds later, her hair came falling down into what seemed like a majestic, smooth wave of gold. She shook her head a bit as she wasn't used to having her hair down, but when she looked back at Hiccup, she saw that he was completely entranced by her.

Then all of a sudden he grabbed her and flipped her over, so now he was back on top and immediately gave a deep passionate kiss, to which she gladly accepted.

"How many men have had the honour of seeing you with you hair down?" he asked as he moved along her jawline, moving up her face, placing kisses as he went.

"Only one man...and he's right on top of me as we speak" she said, her eyes closed to enjoy the experience he was giving her.

"Not even your own father has seen you like this" he breathed into her neck, causing her to release slight, pleasured gasps.

"No" was all she answered before they carried off where they left off. Hiccup had one focus, to make this experience for her the best, and he was doing exactly that. Their tongues battle for supremacy, but Hiccup was coming on top most of the time, and Astrid didn't have any problem with that. For most of her life she was always the one in control...who would've thought she loved being the one controlled.

Hiccup masterfully moved his hands along her goddess like frame, treating it like the most precious diamond ever found. For someone who worked in the forge all his life, his hands were hard, but Astrid noticed that he handled her with extreme care. Most men would just be forcing their way in a situation like this...but Hiccup wasn't. Now she knew what Heather meant.

Their hands began roaming into the 'forbidden' areas of the opposite sex, as their session became more heated. Astrid's moans were like music to Hiccup's ears, informing him that he was doing a good job. But soon they had to release due to the lack of air.

"I'm not sure if this lust or...love" Hiccup breathed, not taking his eyes away from those of his love.

"Neither am I...but it feels...so..." Astrid breathed. "...Right" they both finished off. That's when they looked to where each other's hands had gone and looked back at each other.

"We can't go _that_ far...not right now anyway" Hiccup said.

"You're right...we can't" Astrid said, stating it in a disappointed tone.

"But I know other ways on how to pleasure you" he said and attacked her neck. Astrid immediately arched her back upwards, as she released a more pleasured moans and gasps at Hiccup's actions. This was going to be one eventful night.

_Meanwhile_

A pair of cat-like green eyes stared at the young couple making out with extreme passion on the bed. Toothless had wandered in after his discussion with Bladewing and had caught the scene before him. He didn't want to interrupt because he knew the two young _adults_ needed their space. But that couldn't stop him from having one thought.

_"Well, took them long enough" _Toothless thought with a smirk.

**A/N: Well guys, hope this scene isn't too rushed, especially how Astrid and Hiccup's feelings for each other escalated into a full makeout session. Either way, I hope you enjoy it. **


End file.
